Mardi Gras, French for “Fat Tuesday” marks the end of Carnival and the beginning of the Christian feast of LEnt. The biggest Mardi Gras celebration in the US is in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Weds, Feb. 22 is Ash Wednesday, in some Christian churches the first penitential day in the season of Lent. In the US, some Christians go to church and receive a smudge of ashes on their foreheads as a sign of penitence.