Lentorama 2021: Take Your Holiday to Go

Day 23: Quinquagesima

So it may be cheating to follow up the holiday for 60 days prior to Easter with the one for 50 days prior to Easter, but it's hard to resist taking a closer look at a day that has an alternate name of Pork Sunday.

Quinquagesima is the last Sunday before Easter, and is named for the 50 day period between it and Easter. The day no longer exists in the Catholic liturgical calendar, but is included in ordinary time. This is the typically the day when palms blessed on the previous Palm Sunday are burned, with the ashes used for Ash Wednesday.

To get to the pork, you'd need to visit Northern Europe and the traditionally Lutheran countries, where this day is the highlight of Fastelavn, the Nordic carnival prior to Lent. After services, there would be feasting that included meat, iced buns, sweets, etc. all done as a last blowout before Lent. 

There is a similar day in Eastern Christianity called Maslenitsa Sunday or Cheesefare Sunday, which is the last day non-Lenten foods can be eaten before the start of the Great Lent.