Mardi Gras Dates

Christmas and New Years Day have passed, and now we move on to Mardi Gras, Valentines's Day, Easter and Passover. While some of these dates are fixed, such as Valentine's Day (February 14th), others are special dates that vary from year to year, not falling on a specific date. The date for Mardi Gras is dependent upon the date of Easter Sunday.

Easter is relatively easy to establish, because it always falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon of Spring (assuming that calendars still show the moon phases). This is the key to determining the date for Mardi Gras, which is always the day before Ash Wednesday, 47 days before Easter Sunday.

Easter and Passover occur roughly at the same time, meaning within a week or two of each other. Both occur in the early Spring, but move with respect to each other.

It's becoming more difficult to find these dates today, because, out of "political correctness", more of the publishers, are eliminating most, if not all, of the references to religious dates from their calendars, so as not to "offend anyone". Frankly, that offends me.

Passover, I found, is a bit more difficult to determine. I asked a Jewish acquaintance, and she replied "I just look it up on the calendar". I continued to pursue the matter, trying to learn something of the Jewish Calendar. After doing a bit of research, I determined that the best way to determine the date for Passover (or other Jewish Holy Days), is to check the calendar!

Future Mardi Gras Dates:
Do you want to make plans to visit for Mardi Gras? MardiGrasNewOrleans.com lists the future Mardi Gras dates thru 2017 A.D.