FEBRUARY FACTS

Coming soon: Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday

Call it Mardi Gras Day, Fat Tuesday, or Pancake Day, the day before Ash Wednesday is a time of feasting before the beginning of Lent.

While Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, begins the somber Lenten season, Mardi Gras has been celebrated as a day of gaiety and a raucous binge of eating and drinking. It is the “last hurrah” before Lent begins. This year, that “hurrah” occurs on February 5. But at midnight, the revelry ceases. In New Orleans, street cleaners descend on the French Quarter to clean up and encourage revelers to go home.

Mardi Gras translates to Fat Tuesday. The name came from a custom of feasting on a fattened calf on the last day of Carnival, a pre-Lenten celebration in many countries.

The name Pancake Tuesday, rarely used in the United States, descends from the custom of making pancakes to use up extra sugar, eggs and milk. The 40 Days of Lent have traditionally been celebrated as a time of strict fasting and homemakers didn’t want to waste their precious supplies.

The colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green, and gold. Purple represents justice, green represents faith, and gold represents power. The colors of Ash Wednesday come from the Roman Catholic liturgical colors. Purple is found in the priest's vestments and black in the ashes that are placed on the foreheads of believers.

The celebrating and subsequent fasting lead to Easter Sunday, one of the great holy days of the year.

Chinese New Year celebrates luck, friendship, reconciliation

February 7 marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year, a 15-day festival that this year ushers in the Year of the Rat.

Buddha is credited with naming particular years for animals. Legend tells that Buddha invited all the animals to meet with him on Chinese New Year. Twelve animals attended and Buddha named a year after each animal.

He said that people born in such years would take on characteristics of the animals. Those born in the Year of the Rat are destined to be leaders in their fields and to have passionate, charming personalities.

The color red, along with some gold, pervades the festivities. Many celebrants wear red clothes, doors and windowpanes may be painted red, children receive money in red envelopes, and red ornaments are hung.

The red symbolizes fire that is said to drive away bad luck. Fireworks figure prominently in the celebration with the noise and color causing evil spirits to flee.

The Lantern Festival closes out the New Year. In addition to many elaborately decorated lanterns, singing, dancing, and the eating of traditional foods are part of the celebration.

Often the Lantern Festival includes a dragon dance where a dragon made up of materials such as silk, paper, and bamboo is held on high by a group of young men who guide it as they dance along the streets.

In modern times, Chinese New Year festivities in some areas do not last 15 days. In the United States, large celebrations are held in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Presidents Day: Little-known facts about Washington, Lincoln

Great men have always scourned recompenses...George Washington had thanks and naught beside, except the all-cloudless glory (which few men's is) to free his country...

Byron Don Juan, Canto the Ninth

• George Washington was the only president to win a unanimous vote of the Electoral College.
  
  
• The nation’s capital, along with one state, 31 counties and 17 cities are named in Washington's honor.
  
  
• As a farmer, Washington is credited with introducing the mule to America. Life in Virginia during Washington's youth was harsh. His wife, Martha, once wrote that receiving a tea bag was a precious gift.
  
  
• He was the only president who did not live in Washington D.C.
  
  
• Washington's second inaugural address is the shortest ever delivered, 135 words.
  
  
• According to Newsweek, 14 percent of preschoolers think George Washington is still the president of the U.S.

Abraham Lincoln

• Abraham Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches tall, at a time when most men in the United States were about 5 feet 6 inches. His size 14 shoes had to be custom made.
  
  
• He is the only U.S. president to hold a patent. He came up with an idea that would help boats to float over sandbars when traveling on rivers. He had made two trips to New Orleans on flatboats.
  
  
• Lincoln was color blind.
  
  
• He liked to tell jokes. After he served in the Black Hawk War, Lincoln said he had seen no “live, fighting Indians” but had “many struggles with mosquitoes.”
  
  
• Lincoln had several jobs in New Salem, Ill. He ran a store, was a surveyor, and was the postmaster. He earned the nickname "Honest Abe".
  
  
• In 1861, after he moved to Washington, Lincoln grew a beard on the suggestion of an 11-year-old girl.

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