As a retired pastor, I am occasionally asked why I don’t write more columns that are good sermons or write more about the Church. The secret to a good sermon is you don’t recognize it as a sermon.
My column writing began over 30 years ago, and in that time period, I have no doubt written many columns of a spiritual nature, but I have always tried to write columns on a variety of topics, including “religion.”
In the thirty years plus that I have been creating columns, there have been more than thirty Lenten seasons. So when folks suggested I write about Lent this week, I have to respond that I’ve written just about everything thing there is to say about the subject, so only dregs are left in the bottom of my mind.
And only once in my career did I write the same column twice.
I still feel guilty about it.
When I picked up my stylus a few minutes ago, I felt sure I could not write another article about Lent.
But as I thought about it, I began to think of a smattering of angles I had not covered before. Although I have written about Ash Wednesday, Twelfth Night, Mardi Gras, Penitence, Fasting, Lenten services, I never wrote about the term “Carnival” or “Carnival Season” per se.
Lent began on Ash Wednesday, February 14, so that’s when the penitential or fasting began. In the past, I have written about celebrating Twelfth Night and Mardi Gras before Ash Wednesday to prepare for fasting and penitence. But I never used the term “Carnival Season.”
My slant on this is from a Lutheran perspective, and I don’t think we ever used the term “Carnival” or “Carnival Season,” though they are very apropos words.
From the Lutheran perspective, “Quinquagesima” is Shrove Sunday, and the Church Festival is “Carnival of Shrovetide.” Mardi Gras is the most popular celebration in Shrovetide.
Because we are often familiar with the secular meaning of “carnival,” we may be unaware that the ancient Latin word for “carnival,” lavare carne, meant literally “without meat,” or “remove meat.” The forty days of Lenten fasting would follow that. Things other than meat were also given up during Lent.
During my childhood years of growing up in the Church, I was aware of terms like “Quinquagesima,” but the only way we ever used the word “carnival” was to refer to our annual Dime Box Halloween Carnival with its fun and games. After thirty some years of writing Images, I think I have now said everything I know about the Seasons before and during Lent.
Ray Spitzenberger is a retired WCJC teacher, a retired LCMS pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.