 | The New England Church PulpitNew England Congregational Church UCC |
"TRADITIONS OF THE SACRED AND THE SECULAR" | Mardi Gras Sunday
| February 22, 2004 |
The day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of lenten fasting and penitence, has been known as Shrove Tuesday since the Middle Ages, a day of preparation for lent. The word shrove comes from the verb to shrive which means to confess oneself. During the Reformation, Protestants brought an end to the ancient Roman Catholic practice of pre-Lenten shriving, though some of the customs lingered on and took on new meanings. Shrove Tuesday became known then as Pancake Day because parishioners were supposed to use up all their milk, eggs, and fat which were not allowed to be eaten during lent. So the church bell, which once called people to confession on Shrove Tuesday, became known as the ‘pancake bell’ because it called parishioners to Pancake Day and a time of feasting before the fasting days of lent. Mardi Gras, which translated from french, means fat Tuesday.
In Germany, Shrove Tuesday was called Fastnacht, Eve of the Fast. The rich foods of English pancakes were transformed in Germany communities to Fastnachtkuchen, or what we know today as fastnachts, or cake doughnuts. Eating fastnachts was thought to bring good luck and helpful in filling out the heads of your cabbages.
The day before lent is also known as Carnival. Carnival, from the Latincarne vale, meaning farewell meat during Lenten fasting, was a Christian innovation that took on aspects of the spring rites. Often this time was an intercalary season, the time when a number of days were inserted at year’s end to make the lunar calendar coincide with the solar. In a sense, these days were outside time, and ordinary customs and laws no longer held. So revelry was the name of the game.
A universal feature of such festivals was the wearing of masks, thought by religious historian Mircea Eliade to represent the dead who were wont to return to their homes at this topsy-turvey time. Witches, as personifications of winter, have been sent to the stake during Carnival, and other effigies of winter were burned after the battle between summer and winter. Is not the God of our faith a dynamic God, a God who is living and vital and still inspiring the music and the traditions of the creation? Is not the God of our faith the inspiration of all music–the hymn we sing, the music of the sparrow, simple folk melodies as well as complicated symphonies, clever jingles of advertisement as well as choral responses following prayer? Who can draw the line between what is sacred and what is secular if the God we follow is the inspiration of all that is used for good purpose? After all, many of the old tunes we love to sing are bar tunes from the saloons of an earlier day.
So today, we come to celebrate all these traditions, whether sacred or secular, in the name of the God of all creation, whose calling to penitence and revelry are part of the same calling to be the body of Christ. Whether we are singing “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” or “Sweet Georgia Brown” we are raising voices in praise to the God who inspires music, sacred or secular, written and sung. So make a joyful noise to the Lord. Amen.
–Gary L. McCann
(Historical information taken from Celebrations by Robert J. Myers)
PASTORAL PRAYER
Eternal Spirit of all that exists, of all that was and all that is and all that is to come, we are here once again to focus our minds on that which brings love into our world. We are conscious of all that the news reports of car bombs and wars and political upheaval around the world as well as gangs and shootings in our own community. We are mindful of all whose lives are devastated by such activity; we are mindful of all today ill and those who grieve, and we seek your healing on their behalf.
Even in the midst of the evils of this world, our faith allows us to come together for a time of renewal, a time to let our hair down, a time to find the rhythm of your hope that pulses throughout the universe. As we sing and tap our toes today, may it be a time of refreshment, a time to exercise our spirits with the dance of joy, a time to create merriment so our hearts do not grow so weary of the problems of the world that we give up. May this day be an encouragement to keep going, to keep fighting against the powers of darkness, a day to experience the power of a holy love that overcomes evil.
Energize us to go out from this place to bring joy to others. Empower us to be the body of Christ in all walks of our lives. In the name of the one who writes all the songs and choreographs all the dance and puts music in our hearts, Amen.
| Copyright © 2004 by Gary L. McCann. All rights reserved. |