Mardi Gras, palm burning events lead up to Lenten season
From left, Marty Reardon and 14-year-olds Carson Cramer, Jeffrey Zink and Zack Wuenschel, all of Peters Township, help burn palm leaves while prayers are said inside St. Benedict the Abbot Church to prepare for Ash Wednesday and Lent. The burning of the palms is a reminder of the Easter vigil. A small prayer ceremony was held Tuesday night at the McMurray church.
St. Benedict the Abbot Church members burn palms returned from last Palm Sunday during a prayer ceremony. The remains of the burnt palms are then used for Ash Wednesday.
Preparation for Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season can take different forms.
At some area churches that includes exciting and well-attended Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday celebrations with lots of food, desserts and fun. It can also be a pancake and sausage dinner to enjoy before fasting begins.
“I don’t think the Mardi Gras celebrations are a real widespread thing,” said the Rev. Michael J. Crookston, pastor of Epiphany of our Lord Catholic Church in Monessen. “I think it is a last hurrah before the season of Lent and that is really what the Mardi Gras is supposed to be.
“I think the attendance we have had over the last few years has been phenomenal. It’s one of the biggest events we have. People look forward to it and come for it.”
At St. Benedict the Abbot, McMurray, the Mardi Gras celebration is tied to the parish’s faith formation program and the operation of the event is put into the hands of middle school-aged children, with the help of some adults.
The Rev. Robert Miller, pastor of St. Benedict, said the church likes to hold at least one activity every liturgical season that includes the children and young people of the faith formation program.
“We had celebrated Mardi Gras for a number of years,” Miller said. “We wanted to bring young families together. We focused on our young people. We do get older people involved as well.
“This gives us a chance to gather. We have a prayer services. It allows us to integrate and we use this as a teaching opportunity while having fun.”
At both parishes, the Tuesday celebration includes beads, hats, music, dancing, plenty of food and desserts. Kids can dress up and a king and queen are named. A rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In” will surely be heard as well.
The ashes for Ash Wednesday are secured when the palms gathered by parishioners, typically from the last Palm Sunday, are brought in to be burned at a ceremony prior to or during the celebration.
People watch from windows at St. Benedict the Abbot as the palms are burned. Crookston allows anyone who wishes to come outside of the parish’s Chapel Hall to take part in the burning of the ashes.
“Most people buy their ashes or get them from someone or somewhere else,” Crookston said. “I have always burned the palms as part of the Mardi Gras celebrations, just in preparation for Ash Wednesday.
“The beauty of that is people of the community come together for this. They bring the palms back to the church. They are all burnt together. We can all share in the ashes again. It just completes the cycle.”
Crookston said parishes are on their own in terms of having ashes.
“The ashes are just a symbol,” he added. “Ashes are ashes. Bringing people together and burning palms is just one way. For me, it’s an awesome thought that these palms were in people’s homes all year and we are bringing them in, mixing them together, burning them and sharing the ashes again.
“I don’t know how many people get that symbolism, but it’s really nice.”
Cathy Malencia, formation and outreach minister at St. Benedict, said a positive and energetic atmosphere is created by the celebration.
“It’s a party atmosphere,” Malencia said. “It’s a fun event. And we’ve turned it into a family event.”
Crookston said, while the Lenten season has changed some over the years, the Mardi Gras celebration was a “very important part of the life of the church.”
“It originally came from France,” he said. “It was a carnival celebration. Lent back then was a very arduous thing to go through. So, it was the last celebration until Easter.
“This truly was something to celebrate before you started fasting. Mardi Gras has taken on a different dimension, and celebrations have become out of control. I think that’s why people have kind of shied away.”
Miller said the celebrations are a good way of heading into the Lenten season, which is a subdued and more reserved time.
“It shows the faith in our daily lives,” he said. “This all leads up to Easter, the resurrection. In the church, it is more important than the season of Christmas.”