Festivals: Shrove Tuesday

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Shrove is the past tense of the verb 'shrive', which means to confess to a punishable or reprehensible deed. Shrove Tuesday is the last day before the Christian period of Lent, a time of abstinence when people give things up. Shrove Tuesday is therefore an opportunity to indulge in and use up foods which are banned during Lent, such as eggs, butter, and fat. Consequently, pancakes are normally eaten on Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday is otherwise known as Pancake Day in the UK, and Mardis Gras in France (which translates into Grease or Fat Tuesday).

Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent - the 40 days leading up to Easter - was traditionally a time of fasting and on Shrove Tuesday, Anglo-Saxon Christians went to confession and were "shriven" (absolved from their sins). A bell would be rung to call people to confession. This came to be called the “Pancake Bell” and is still rung today.

Shrove Tuesday always falls 47 days before Easter Sunday, so the date varies from year to year and falls between February 3 and March 9. In 2016 Shrove Tuesday will fall on the 9th February.

Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity to use up eggs and fats before embarking on the Lenten fast and pancakes are the perfect way of using up these ingredients.

A pancake is a thin, flat cake, made of batter and fried in a frying pan. A traditional English pancake is very thin and is served immediately. Golden syrup or lemon juice and caster sugar are the usual toppings for pancakes.

The pancake has a very long history and featured in cookery books as far back as 1439. The tradition of tossing or flipping them is almost as old: "And every man and maide doe take their turne, And tosse their Pancakes up for feare they burne." (Pasquil's Palin, 1619).

The ingredients for pancakes can be seen to symbolise four points of significance at this time of year:
Eggs ~ Creation
Flour ~ The staff of life
Salt ~ Wholesomeness
Milk ~ Purity

Pancakes