When is Mardi Gras celebrated? this is a really hard question?
Question by dayer_ss: When is Mardi Gras celebrated? this is a really hard question?
This holiday shifts every year. I read that it is celebrated on the day before Ash Wednesday (implying that Mardi Gras is celebrated only on Tuesdays). The Ash Wednesday is celebrated exactly 46 days before Easter. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday that is after the first full moon that is after the Spring Equinox. WHAT?
So first you need to know when the Spring Equinox is and what the Spring Equinox is (it sounds like some sort of arctic mammal). Second you need to have a lunar calendar at hand. Third you have to start counting… You might as well call NASA Propulsion Academy and ask them to contact their Lunar and Planetary Science Observatories to figure out when the next Mardi Gras is. It might be faster.
Is is really supposed to be so preposterously hard to calculate when some of the most popular holidays are?
Am I doing something wrong here?
Best answer:
Answer by andreashatz
Lucky for you you don’t have to do any of those things. In order to help people who think Spring Equinox is an arctic mammal, people who know that Spring Equinox is in fact that nice day in March when the day is as long as the night have devised a complicated device, called the “calendar”. Furthermore, they’ve designed all sorts of calendars: wall callendars with shirtless pictures of your favourite singers, electronic calendars for your PC or mobile phone, pocket calendars you can carry around in your… guess what… pocket, etc. So, all people who have given up on visiting zoo after zoo to find a Spring Equinox can just search their calendars for a February or March date marked “Mardi Gras”.
Life is wonderful, innit? 
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!