Shrove Tuesday

Easter and Lent in our house are always filled with many traditions including a meal on Shrove Tuesday. Within our Christian household we saw this as one of the days leading up to Lent, and a time when we should start thinking about what we can do without for Lent. Originally, the name Shrove Tuesday came from the verb shrive, or obtain absolution from sins by making confessions and doing penance. So in order for English Christians to start Lent complete absolved, they were require to shrive. Shrove Tuesday is given other names in other households such as Pancake Tuesday or Mardi Gras. But whatever you decide to call it, the idea behind the celebration is very similar: Mardi Gras of course is a celebration where you eat rich foods, wearing wonderful costumes, playing music and being joyful and thankful for what you have in life. Pancakes are eaten on Pancake Day as they use up ingredients like fat, sugar, and flour that were often not allowed during the Lenten period.

Pancakes are a classic dish in our family, as we ate them for our Sunday lunch, therefore we gladly ate them on Shrove Tuesday as well. Mum would get out Aunt Jessie Lapworth's electric frying pan, and make the pancakes from a recipe that was taped to the inside of the cupboard door above where the batter would be mixed. There are pale circles in the corner of this frying pan where four pancakes would be poured out to cook, and once tiny one fit perfectly in the middle. This would usually be thrown to us children, to keep us quiet while the rest of the meal was being prepared. All the ceremony surrounding the meal and its meaning are ingrained in me, and I was very much looking forward to our pancakes this year! Mum and I certainly enjoyed our pancakes and Oscer Mayer bacon (you can't usually get that brand over here in England so it was a treat!), but regardless of what you call this day and even what you all do on it, I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!