Carnival has an interesting etymology and it is tied in with the Christian season of Lent. Lent begins on Wed. The word Carnival literally means "to remove meat"?
French: Carnaval Italian: Carnevale from the Latin carnelevarium, carnilevamen or derived from the original Latin: Carnem Levare . . to remove meat . . or . . down with meat . . or . . farewell to meat.
As with Mardi Gras (French for fat Tuesday), carnival is celebrated on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. This is the beginning of Lent, when people have to start fasting from meat. In the old days Carnival was another name for Shrove Tuesday or Shrove-tide. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Trivial Notes: to shrove or confess (repent) your sins, and to begin fasting (from meat).
Certain Eastern Rite Christian churches start their Lent on the Monday before Ash Wednesday and skip the Tuesday festival!
The start of lent is based on the astronomical setting of the Easter date (which is close to the astronomical selection of Passover). In the Western church, Ash Wednesday can be as early as February 3 and as late as March 9.
Lent is supposed to be “40 days” of fasting but there are 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. This is because Sundays are not counted in the fast!
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The problem is they pressurize the cabins to an equivalent altitude of 8000 feet and not the pressure found at sea level. This keeps the flexing stress down on the aircraft body, especially if a high flying plane makes a lot of short hop landings. The aircraft would overly expand and contract with each landing cycle if they used full sea level pressure. The less stress the aircraft body gets, the more longevity they can get out of the airframe. I would speculate that they would have to make the body more robust if they decided to use sea level pressure (14.7 LB/sq. in). The 8000 foot specification saves carrying the additional weight that would be needed to beef up the cabin structure if they flew at high altitude with inside pressure at sea level.
Look at the bright side. If you land in Santa Fe, NM, you will already be adapted to the +7000 foot altitude!
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I was surprised at how many sites I found on the Internet when I plugged in "Cabin Pressure at 8000 feet".
It seems that this 8000 foot equivalent pressure gives problems to people who scuba dive right before a flight. Check out the sites.
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