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Carnival is a Western Christian festival that takes place before Lent, the liturgical season of penance. The main celebrations usually take place in February or early March, during what is known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival usually entails public celebrations, such as parades, public street parties, and other entertainments, with aspects of a circus thrown in for good measure. People can put their ordinary individualism aside and enjoy a greater sense of communal oneness by dressing up in elaborate costumes and masks.

Participants frequently consume excessive amounts of beer, meat, and other things that will be avoided during the forthcoming Lenten season. Butter, milk, and other animal products were traditionally not used “excessively,” but rather their stock was depleted to avoid waste.

Before Lent (which emphasizes the opposite), this feast is recognized for being a period of tremendous indulgence, with drinking, overeating, and a variety of other indulgent pastimes. Pancakes, doughnuts, and other pastries, for example, were cooked and consumed for the last time.

During Lent, people consume less animal products and have the option of making a Lenten sacrifice, which involves giving up a desired object or activity.

Mock battles, such as food fights; social satire; mockery of authorities; grotesque body costumes with exaggerated features such as large noses, bellies, mouths, phalli, or elements of animal bodies; abusive language and degrading acts; depictions of disease and gleeful death; and a general reversal of everyday rules and norms are all common features of Carnival.

The custom of wearing masks in Italy goes back to the 1400s at the Venice Carnival, and has long been a source of inspiration for Greek drama and Commedia dell’arte.

Carnival is a phrase that is commonly used in locations with a big Catholic population, as well as in Greece. Pre-Lenten celebrations, along with penitential observances, take place on Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras in historically Evangelical Lutheran countries, and on Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras in areas with a high concentration of Anglicans (Church of England/US Episcopal Church), Methodists, and other Protestants.

Maslenitsa is observed during the penultimate week before Great Lent in Slavic Eastern Orthodox countries. Carnival season generally begins on 11/11 in German-speaking Europe and the Netherlands (often at 11:11 a.m.). This can be traced back to pre-Advent celebrations or harvest celebrations on St. Martin’s Day.

Carnival is a Christian term that refers to a period after Epiphany season that culminated before midnight on Shrove Tuesday in the Middle Ages. “Despite some appearances,” writes British historian John Bossy of the origins of Carnival practices, “these were Christian in character, and they were medieval in origin: although it has been widely assumed that they continued some kind of pre-Christian cult, there is no evidence that they existed much before 1200.”
“Despite some appearances,” writes British historian John Bossy of the origins of Carnival practices, “these were Christian in character, and they were medieval in origin: although it has been widely assumed that they continued some kind of pre-Christian cult, there is no evidence that they existed much before 1200.”
“Carnival consequently represented a final moment of feasting and joy before the spiritual rigors of Lent,” because Lent was a period of fasting. Meat was plentiful at this period of the Christian calendar, and it was devoured during Carnival, while people abstained from eating meat during the liturgical season of Lent that followed.

People confessed (shrived) their sins in preparation for Lent during the last few days of Carnival, known as Shrovetide. Christians painted their faces to celebrate Shrovetide in 1605, according to a Shrovetide play:

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