Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent in the Christian calendar. It is also known as Mardi Gras and, in England, Pancake Tuesday, for the custom of eating up of rich things before the Lenten fast.
Lent is a season of abstinence in preparation for Easter. It recognizes Jesus' trial in the wilderness and is also called the Great Fast by some churches. On this day all the foods that were to be avoided throughout Lent are used up, hence pancakes. The idea is that if older temptations are removed from the house, it is easier to manage our human frailty, and thereby offers us support in persevering through this voluntary fast.
The word ‘shrove’ is the past tense of the verb ‘shrive’, meaning to hear a confession, impose a penance or give absolution. Shrove-tide was a week of confession and merriment before Lent.
The only other surviving use of 'shrive' is in the expression 'short shrift' which was the quick confession given to criminals before their execution.
"Shrovetide football" with an unlimited number of players, vague rules and a propensity for causing violent injury, reputedly dates from Anglo-Saxon times in Britain.
Throughout late medieval Europe pancakes had a place among Easter culinary items, especially on Shrove Tuesday. Pancakes were originally invented as a way of using up all the leftover fatty and rich before Lent began on Ash Wednesday.
Pancake races derive from a 15th century housewife in Olney, Buckinghamshire who was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time. When she heard the church bells ringing for mass she ran out of her house, still carrying her pan and pancake.
In 1950 the Olney pancake race became an international event, with times at Olney compared with those in Liberal, Kansas. Liberal has won more times than Olney.
William Shakespeare uses the simile “as fit as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday” in All’s Well That Ends Well.
Around 52 million eggs are used in the UK on Pancake Day, which is 22 million more than usual.
In Denmark on Shrove Tuesday, children traditionally hit a 'shrove barrel' until it breaks and scatters candy across the floor.
Sources Housetohome, Daily Express
Lent is a season of abstinence in preparation for Easter. It recognizes Jesus' trial in the wilderness and is also called the Great Fast by some churches. On this day all the foods that were to be avoided throughout Lent are used up, hence pancakes. The idea is that if older temptations are removed from the house, it is easier to manage our human frailty, and thereby offers us support in persevering through this voluntary fast.
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| Pieter Bruegel the Elder: The Fight between Carnival and Lent |
The word ‘shrove’ is the past tense of the verb ‘shrive’, meaning to hear a confession, impose a penance or give absolution. Shrove-tide was a week of confession and merriment before Lent.
The only other surviving use of 'shrive' is in the expression 'short shrift' which was the quick confession given to criminals before their execution.
"Shrovetide football" with an unlimited number of players, vague rules and a propensity for causing violent injury, reputedly dates from Anglo-Saxon times in Britain.
Throughout late medieval Europe pancakes had a place among Easter culinary items, especially on Shrove Tuesday. Pancakes were originally invented as a way of using up all the leftover fatty and rich before Lent began on Ash Wednesday.
Pancake races derive from a 15th century housewife in Olney, Buckinghamshire who was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time. When she heard the church bells ringing for mass she ran out of her house, still carrying her pan and pancake.
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| A pancake race in England By Lestalorm |
In 1950 the Olney pancake race became an international event, with times at Olney compared with those in Liberal, Kansas. Liberal has won more times than Olney.
William Shakespeare uses the simile “as fit as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday” in All’s Well That Ends Well.
Around 52 million eggs are used in the UK on Pancake Day, which is 22 million more than usual.
In Denmark on Shrove Tuesday, children traditionally hit a 'shrove barrel' until it breaks and scatters candy across the floor.
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| Shrove barrel Pixiebay |
Sources Housetohome, Daily Express
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