Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnival, Pancake Day.
I'm feeling a bit guilty as we've had to go out and buy pancake batter (what? Does having a baby really make me incapable of mixing together flour, milk and an egg? And if the packet say please add milk what exactly is the added value over just buying the ingredients?) - buying new hardly seems to go with the spirit of Shrove Tuesday.
I only ever won one prize at School: I was 11 and I won a scripture prize for my explanation of pancake day (the prize was a French dictionary, not entirely clear why). So I guess I just assume people should know.
So I was kind of disappointed when on kids TV today the presenter said "it's pancake day, dunno why but let's eat lots of pancakes". Dunno why? Surely he 1) should've known and 2) could've explained briefly.
The following programme Blue Peter did (very briefly) say that it marked the beginning of the Christian festival of Lent before moving quickly on to an item guessing which country was the origin of the odd fillings in three pancakes... it was the Netherlands (apples, bacon, syrup), Japan (fish flakes and cabbage) and India (coconut, cashews and raisins).
I can't repeat my essay, but a few thoughts on lent...
Shrove Tuesday (the UK, Australian etc. term for the day known as Mardi Gras in the US) is named for shriving, an old Anglo-Saxon word for confession.
It's the day before Ash Wednesday where the whole using-things-up-and-purification theme continues with the burning of the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday - in olden times the wearing of sackcloth and ashes was a symbol of repentance.
Confession, repentance, using things up - lent hardly seems a bundle of laughs.
All seems quite a long way from Mardi gras with coloured beads, wild dancing and more tequila than you chan shake a stick at. I guess Carnival is just an extension of the purging oneself of the excess fat of life for the lenten period. Or a Christian cut-and-paste over an existing festival.
Lent is the name for the 40 day period before Easter, starting at Shrove Tuesday and ending with Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week.
Lent is a period of solemn reflection and traditionally fasting, though today most Christians represent this by eating pancakes (using up the sort of foods that were in the house in olden times) and by giving something up,often chocolate or alcohol but sometimes more substantial: this year the Church of England is suggesting giving up carbon to help slow down climate change.
Lent represents the period in which Jesus went into the desert and was tested by the devil about who hw was and what he could do. It's worth reading this carefully - the devil tempts Jesus to test himself using bits of Jewish scriptures and Jesus uses his authoritative teaching of the same scriptures to show his true self and powers: he doesn't need a rock to transform into bread or to throw himself from the temple to show he is God.
What am I giving up for lent? Dunno. Probably will look into the carbon footprint idea and reconsider flying on holiday...
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