Carnival Time!

What makes a story interesting? For many, it is the action. For others, it is the fascinating characters. For still others, the author of an interesting story can hook them with vivid descriptions of the setting. However, most would agree that the best stories skillfully combine plot, character and setting into a good read.

We might view history similarly. After all, history is God’s story. There is action. Things happen. Something causes a resulting effect. Then there are the interesting characters. It may be difficult in a survey course to go into much biographical detail, but such accounts remind us that the world’s movers and shakers were and are human beings like we are. For a goodly number of people, however, the most interesting component of the story that is “history” is the setting. How did people live? What were there homes like? What customs did they have? How does that compare to my own experience?

I’ve been pondering this notion for a week or so. What if we could put together a time capsule of our life since the beginning of 2007? What would we include, so that when it would be opened in 100 or 1000 years, those who live at that time would have an insight into the type of people we were? I tune in the news for interesting stories and hear about the tragic death of Anna Nicole Smith, and wonder why she was so famous? Then I hear about a woman astronaut who drives from Texas to Florida wearing a diaper so she doesn’t need to make a bathroom break in order to stalk and confront a rival astronaut over a third astronaut, whom they both loved. If that’s not enough, I see that Brittney Spears checks into rehab, checks out of rehab, and goes to shave her head. Perhaps she has become enlightened, and become a Buddhist monk. So what would people of the future think about our culture if they could open a newspaper from 2007? The events themselves are pathetic, and the fact that people follow the stories with such fascination is equally so.

Today, Tuesday, February 20, 2007, marks a cultural phenomenon that not only is international in scope, it is inter-century in duration. Whether you call it Carnival, Karneval, Mardi Gras, Fassenacht, Fasching, or just Fat Tuesday, millions of people engage in one huge bacchanalia before Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. Many customs associated with religious festivals are actually pagan in origin. Certainly the date on which Christians celebrate the birth of Christ was actually a pagan festival known as Saturnalia, the triumph of light over darkness. The Church simply “baptized” the day and made it Christmas, the triumph of the light of the world (Christ). “Easter,” on which we celebrate the resurrection of Christ from death, has many symbols of pagan fertility associated with it—bunnies, eggs, etc.. Even the word “Easter” is a derivative of “Astarte/Ashteroth,” the Phoenician consort goddess to Baal. The rank paganism associated with Halloween (all Hallows’ eve) goes without comment. And then there is Carnival.

Carnival means “Farewell to meat.” It could mean, just as easily, “Farewell to the flesh,” because many participants view this as one last time to have “fun” (translate, “sin with abandon”) before giving it all up for Lent. But what about the crazy costumes, the gaudy beads, the garish masks? A video I have for German class describes the entire scene without any Christian connection, simply saying that the celebrators are “driving out winter.” So from January 6 to Fat Tuesday, whenever that falls (because the date of Ash Wednesday depends on the date of Easter, which we know occurs on the first Sunday following the first full moon following the vernal equinox), millions of people make noise, wear scary masks, and party in order to chase winter away. And we smile at the hajjis throwing their 42 stones at the Satan pillars.

By the time many of you read and comment, Carnival will be over and Lent will have begun. I am curious to see whether the chapel speaker this week mentions the fact. Whether your church observes the season of Lent as a time of repentance and spiritual discipline before Easter is a matter of Christian liberty, and we dare not condemn those who practice it or those who choose not to, simply to try and understand each other as well as we can. I hope that those who do make a sacrifice for Lent will use that experience in a positive, reflective way, focusing not on our own pride and accomplishments, but on the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Then it will be Christ’s love that motivates us to say “Farewell to the flesh” and “welcome to the Spirit!”