I listened to an interesting podcast today that talked about the season of Carnevale. Evidently in the history of the church seasons, Advent was a time of fasting leading up to Christmas, as was Lent leading up to Easter. Once the Christmas season ended with the Baptism of Jesus, which we celebrated yesterday, the Carnevale season begins. “Carne” meaning “meat” and “Vale” meaning “none” gave definition to the weeks leading up to Lent in which traditionally there is fasting from meat. The 2 together has made the word “carnival” that we know today. The podcast mentioned the “fasching” season in Germany. I remember that time very well, as my family lived there in the early 1970’s. Fasching seemed to last a long time with various parades and costumes. As a child, on a specific day we would dress up and go from house to house saying, “speck und eier”, meaning “bacon and eggs”. That made no sense to me at the time, but people gave us candy, so we participated in the event. My mom was German, so she was able to navigate any awkward situations that might have occurred. Today, all this started to make sense. Different places celebrate Carnivale with their own time frame and customs. “Bacon and eggs” was a reminder that there will soon be fasting from such things and we better eat the good stuff while we can. Of course, as a child it was much more exciting to get candies instead of a steak. So, enjoy this time of merriment before we get somber during Lent.

I Found God today learning more about Carnivale and remembering the fun I had with it as a child.