Dictionary

Mardi Gras en · PROPN

Pronunciation

• /ˈmɑɹdi ɡɹɔ/ (General-American, obsolete)
• /ˈmɑːdi ɡɹɑː/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈmɑɹdi ɡɹɑ/ (General-American)
• (US) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from French mardi gras (literally “fat Tuesday”).

Meanings

1. The day when traditionally all fat and meat in the house were finished up, before Christians were banned from eating them during Lent, which commenced the following day on Ash Wednesday.
   • This Tuesday and Wednesday, four holidays from different cultures and religions overlap in a rare calendar year. The celebrations of Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) and Lunar New Year both occur on Tuesday, Feb. 17 [2026]. This won't happen again until Feb. 13, 2029, according to the websites chinahighlights.com and mardigrasneworleans.com. Ramadan is expected to start Tuesday evening, pending official confirmation, and Lent ([which begins on] Ash Wednesday) begins on Feb. 18. Last year, Ramadan and Lent began within a week of each other on Feb. 28 and March 5. The holidays are all happening within two days this year because several long solar, lunar and lunisolar calendar cycles sync up. Lunar New Year happens on the second new moon after winter solstice, which is also Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) — 47 days before Easter Sunday. 2026 February 16, Alicia Eler, “Lunar New Year, Ramadan and Lent in rare alignment this year. The holidays follow different solar and lunar calendars, but some of them sync up in 2026”, in Minnesota Star Tribune, archived from the original on 16 Feb 2026:
   • Today's wild Mardi Gras parades are much different than the original, more religious events of the Middle Ages. 2007, Ace Collins, Stories Behind the Traditions And Stories of Easter, Zondervan, →ISBN, page 113:
   • Dancing, fiddling, and feasting at Christmas and on Mardi-gras, before Lent, and feasting at or after Easter, are among their amusements or indulgences. 1847, John Macgregor, The Progress of America: From the Discovery by Columbus to the Year 1846, Whittaker & Co., page 88:
   • Mardi-gras was ushered in with various ceremonies, offering a strange mixture of devotion and profaneness. 1839, Marguerite Blessington, The idler in Italy, Henry Colburn, page 299:
2. The last day of a carnival, traditionally the celebration immediately before the start of Lent when joy would be out of place for Christians.
   • The carnival moves through raucous celebrations climaxing on Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), and is over on Ash Wednesday. 2007, Ryan ver Berkmoes, Western Europe, Lonely Planet, →ISBN, page 1007:
   • 1823, Thomas Tryatall, The Parisian Carnival, read in The New Monthly Magazine, and Literary Journal, Oliver Everett, p. 90, "Masks!" exclaimed I; "why, it isn't carnival time, is it?" "To be sure 'tis," replied he, "dis is Mardi gras, de gayest of de gay days. Noting but pleasure, and fun, and hosh-posh."
   • 1825, Thomas Colley Grattan, The Vouée au Blanc read in High-Ways and By-Ways, or, Tales of the Roadside: Picked Up in the French Provinces by a Walking Gentleman: Second Series: Volume III, Henry Colburn, p. 80, Every body knows what an important epoch Mardi Gras forms in the annual enjoyments of the French. It is the last day of the carnival gaieties, and that which precedes the gloominess of Lent.
   • As a result, Mardi Gras, the culmination of the Carnival season pre-ceding Lent, is observed in Pensacola. 2006, Kristin G. Congdon, Tina Bucuvalas, Just Above the Water: Florida Folk Art, University Press of Mississippi, →ISBN, page 6:
   • Who could have believed, that saw her on the night of the Mardi Gras amid the revels at the Palace, seemingly joyous and happy as youth and innocence could make her, far excelling in loveliness all the fair dames gathered round her, that envy and hatred, and hot desire of revenge, were all hid beneath that seemingly guileless smile and treacherous abandon? 1832, Georgina Alicia L, Chantilly, Vol. III, Edward Bull, page 214:
3. A carnival.
   • SYDNEY GAY & LESBIAN MARDI GRAS Not just a famously spectacular parade and an all-night dance party in Oxford Street, this is a month-long festival in February that also features theatre, art, photography and music in a celebration of gay and lesbian life. 2007, Paul Smitz, Berry Blake, Australian Language & Culture, Lonely Planet, →ISBN, page 101:
   • Mardi Gras has been in operation here for the past two weeks, and on Monday last the Trudor sports should have commenced. 1868, Charles Swett, A Trip to British Honduras, and to San Pedro, Republic of Honduras, Dollar Price, page 70:

Forms

Deriveds

Mardi Grass · Mardi Gras Indian

Relateds

Lundi Gras

Synonyms

Pancake Tuesday · Fat Tuesday · Shrove Tuesday · Pancake Day

Translations (2)

pl Mardi Gras (a carnival) · eo karnavalo (a carnival)