Mardi Gras, pronounced /máádi grá/, the theme for this year's USSK Annual Ball, is the French name for an upcoming important day in the year. Mardi means Tuesday, and Gras means "fat" or "greasy", and this is the last day for celebrations, especially for eating meat and other luxury food, before the forty days of Lent ("pôst") taking us up to Easter (Veľká noc).

This special Tuesday is called Shrove Tuesday in English, which involves the idea of "cleaning out", but I'm not sure if it means cleaning out our bodies, or our food cupboards. The next day is called Ash ("popoľ") Wednesday, and that should mark the end of balls and weddings for a while. In other places the Mardi Gras celebrations are called the Carnival, which is from Latin and means "meat - goodbye"!