“Fat Tuesday” and “Shrove Tuesday.” Are these two concepts opposites?

It may be easy to equate the whole tradition of “Fat Tuesday” with all the excesses of Mardi Gras: too much greasy food, too much inspirited beverage, too much skin, etc. And it may be easy to think, as the righteous Anglicans we are, of “Shrove Tuesday” as it’s redeemed antithesis: prayers, sobriety, the long deep breath as we plunge into the austerities of Lent.

I contend, however, this is not so… or, at least, if it is so, that it ought not to be…