What is Shrove Tuesday called in America? The full naming map

The short answer: In the United States, Shrove Tuesday is most commonly called Fat Tuesday (the literal English translation) or Mardi Gras (the French version, dominant in Louisiana). In Polish-American communities it is Pączki Day. Some Lutheran and Episcopal churches still use the term Shrove Tuesday directly. The British name Pancake Day is almost never used.

The same Tuesday — the day before Ash Wednesday — has a remarkable number of names across the United States. Different ethnic communities, religious denominations, and regions kept different versions of the European pre-Lenten tradition, and each came with its own vocabulary. Here is the full naming map and where each term is actually used.

Mardi Gras — Louisiana, the Gulf Coast, and culturally everywhere

Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday". It is the name brought to North America by French Catholic settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries, and it remains the dominant local name across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and parts of Florida. The country's oldest organised Mardi Gras celebration is in Mobile, Alabama (first recorded 1703), with the largest now in New Orleans.

Outside the Gulf Coast, "Mardi Gras" is widely understood across the US as the name of the Louisiana festival rather than as a generic term for the day. An American in Boston or Seattle would recognise "Mardi Gras" but probably not connect it personally with Lent or with a tradition they themselves observe.

Fat Tuesday — the everyday English term

"Fat Tuesday" is the literal translation of Mardi Gras and is the most common everyday English-language term across the US. It appears on supermarket signs, in newspaper headlines, in church bulletins, and in casual conversation. Where Britain says "Pancake Day", America says "Fat Tuesday".

The "fat" refers to the rich foods — butter, lard, eggs, milk, sugar — that medieval Catholic households used up before the Lenten fast began. The same etymology gives Sweden's Fettisdagen, Iceland's Sprengidagur, and Italy's Martedì Grasso.

Pączki Day — the Polish-American Midwest

In cities with significant historic Polish-American populations — Chicago, Detroit, Hamtramck, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Cleveland, parts of Pennsylvania — the day is widely known as Pączki Day (pronounced poonch-key day). Pączki are deep-fried, jam-filled, glazed Polish doughnuts, originally a way to use up lard, sugar, and eggs before Lent. Bakeries that produce them sell out within hours; pre-dawn lines outside Hamtramck's Polish bakeries are an annual local news story.

Outside these specific cities, "Pączki Day" is rarely heard, but within them it functions as the dominant local name for the day — even more than Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday.

Shrove Tuesday — Episcopal, Lutheran, and Anglican parishes

The formal liturgical name Shrove Tuesday survives in mainline American Protestant churches with stronger liturgical traditions, particularly the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Anglican Church in North America. These parishes often hold "Shrove Tuesday pancake suppers" as community events and small fundraisers — the closest thing the US has to a British-style domestic pancake tradition, but church-led rather than household-led.

Outside churchgoing communities, "Shrove Tuesday" is recognised by the religiously informed but rarely used in everyday speech.

Carnival — Brazilian, Caribbean, and Latin American communities

In US communities with strong Brazilian, Caribbean, or Latin American heritage — particularly in Miami, New York, and parts of New Jersey — the day and the days preceding it are referred to as Carnival (or Carnaval). The framing is the same as Mardi Gras: the climax of a multi-day pre-Lenten festival with parades, music, and elaborate costumes.

Other regional names

• Fasnacht Day — Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylvania German) communities. The name refers to a square, hole-less doughnut traditionally eaten on the day. Especially observed in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
• Krepu Diena — Latvian-American communities. Crêpe Day. Observed in scattered congregations linked to the Latvian diaspora.
• Bun Day / Sprengidagur equivalents — Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish-American communities sometimes preserve the Scandinavian pre-Lenten cream-bun traditions.

Why the US has so many names for one day

The reason is essentially a map of 18th- and 19th-century Catholic immigration to North America. Each immigrant community brought its own pre-Lenten tradition and its own name for the day. French Catholics gave Louisiana Mardi Gras. Polish Catholics gave the Midwest Pączki Day. Pennsylvania Germans gave the mid-Atlantic Fasnacht Day. Brazilian and Caribbean Catholics gave coastal cities Carnival. Anglican and Lutheran Protestants kept Shrove Tuesday in their liturgical calendars.

The US never developed a single, unified, secular name for the day — partly because the country was settled largely by Protestant groups who did not observe pre-Lenten feasting, leaving the tradition to survive only in specific Catholic and high-Anglican pockets. For the wider context of why the US and UK ended up so different on this, see Do Americans celebrate Pancake Day?

Comparison table — names by country and language

The pattern holds: most languages name the day after either the rich food being used up (Fat, Butter, Bursting) or the act of removing meat from the diet (Carnival). The British "Pancake Day" is unusual in naming the day after the specific food eaten — a measure of how dominant the pancake itself became to the British observance.