• Fat Tuesday is the last day for partying and eating before Ash Wedneday and the beginning of Lent.sparkling coins image by Roslen Mack from Fotolia.com
  
  Fat Tuesday is the English translation for the term Mardi Gras. The term Mardi Gras refers to the period between the Epiphany and Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday. Carnival season ends the last day before Lent, which is Fat Tuesday. Fat Tuesday is based on the idea that it is the last night one can eat rich, fatty foods before the beginning of the ritual of fasting during Lent. People celebrate Fat Tuesday in many ways but celebrations generally consist of eating wonderful food, wearing Mardi Gras colors and partying.
  
  

Fat Tuesday Pot Luck

• Hosting a Fat Tuesday pot luck is a fun way to bring people together to share a variety of traditional Mardi Gras foods and recipes. To get organized for the potluck, develop a list of people to invite and create an invitation that asks guests to bring a traditional Fat Tuesday dish. To ensure a good variety of foods, let each guest know what kind of food to bring, such as an appetizer, salad, entrée, dessert, drink etc. Ask each guest to bring as many copies of a recipe as there are guests attending. If you invite 10 guests, then ask each person to bring 10 copies of their recipe.
  
  

Fat Tuesday Costume Party

• One of the traditions of Mardi Gras, Carnival or Fat Tuesday is the wearing of masks and costumes. A Fat Tuesday costume party can include: a costume parade around the neighborhood or on the town, Fat Tuesday snacks or a full Fat Tuesday spread of food and prices for the best costumes. Some categories of costumes to consider are: the best costume for disguising the person who is wearing it, the most creative costume, the worst costume, the funniest costume etc. Judges can be persons who did not want to enter the contest or there can be a show of hands of all guests for each category.
  
  

Fat Tuesday Dessert Ideas

• The traditional dessert of Fat Tuesday is King's Cake, which is associated with the feast day of the Epiphany. This cake is a round ring pastry that is decorated with sugar in the traditional colors of Mardi Gras-purple, green and gold. A tiny plastic baby is hidden inside the cake before it is baked. The tradition is that the person who finds the baby has to make or buy the next King's Cake. Another traditional dessert, found around Fat Tuesday celebrations, is beignets-pronounced "ben-yea." These are square shaped donut-like pastries without the hole. They are traditionally smothered in powdered sugar and eaten with café au lait.