While the painting contains nearly 200 characters, it is unified under the theme of the transition from Shrove Tuesday to Lent, the period forty days before Easter.

[1] The literary theme of the struggle between personifications of Shrove Tuesday and Lent dates as far back as the year 400 with the Psychomachia.

[2] A likely graphic precursor of the painting is Lent and Carnival, a 1558 etching by Hieronymus Cock after Frans Hogenberg, in which the personifications of lean and fat are driven together on carts by their supporters.

[3] In the foreground is the battle itself: the two opponents, Carnival and Lent, pulled and pushed and accompanied by supporters, are about to meet.

Themes in the scene would have been nostalgic for contemporary viewers, since it depicts an older and more rural style of improvised celebration, in contrast to the highly organized professional processions which would have been seen at that time in Antwerp.

[5] The spectacle is divided into two halves, and framed by two buildings: the inn on the left, the church on the right, which gives it the character of a scene in a stage show.

The boundary is not sharply defined, however, and in several places the followers of Lent and Shrove Tuesday invade each other's space.

[3] Carnival is a fat butcher, with his pouch of knives, straddling a beer barrel on a blue sled.

[3] Carnival's followers form a procession of figures wearing masks, bizarre headgear and household objects as props or improvised musical instruments, in a reversal of the normal order.

Lent is a thin woman, seated on a hard three-legged chair, and armed with a baker's spatula called a peel, on which lie two herring.

She is surrounded by pretzels, fish, fasting breads, mussels, and onions, all typically consumed during Lent.

A church minister accompanies the children, carrying a bucket with a holy water brush and a bag for donations, which include dry rolls, pretzels and shoes.

The left side is dominated by an inn, which according to its signboard is called the Blau Schuyt (Blue Barge), referencing a Middle Dutch poem popular during Lenten celebrations, in which the bourgeois world was turned upside down.

The painting shows the bride and groom dancing, while a masked member of the company collects money with a piggy bank.

The wealthy have been reminded of their obligation to charity by the Lenten sermon, so they give alms to the numerous beggars.

Behind the man who is missing both feet and a forearm, a woman is wearing pilgrim insignia, but in the basket on her back is a monkey, which indicates feigning.

The background is dominated by people working, primarily with food: women preparing Lenten fish, men carrying wine from the inn and a woman making waffles.

They have taken part in the carnival event: the man is dressed up by tucking a straw bag as a hunchback under his clothes, the woman carries a non-burning lantern around the waist.