Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday is a term associated in English-speaking countries, especially the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of the United States for the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of fasting and prayer called Lent.

The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of confession and doing penance. During the week before Lent, sometimes called Shrovetide in English, Christians were expected to go to confession in preparation for the penitential season of turning to God. Shrove Tuesday was the last day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, and noted in histories dating back to 1000 AD. The popular celebratory aspect of the day had developed long before the Protestant Reformation, and was associated with releasing high spirits before the somber season of Lent. It is analogous to the continuing Carnival tradition associated with Mardi Gras (and its various names in different countries) that continued separately in European Catholic countries.

In the United States, the term Shrove Tuesday is less widely known outside of people who observe the liturgical traditions of the Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, and Roman Catholic Churches. Because of the increase in many immigrant populations and traditions since the 19th century, and the rise of highly publicized festivals, Mardi Gras has become more familiar as the designation for that day.

In the United Kingdom and many other countries, the day is often known as Pancake Day. Making and eating such foods was considered a last feast with ingredients such as sugar, fat and eggs, whose consumption was traditionally restricted during the ritual fasting associated with Lent.

Terminologies

Fat Tuesday

All Catholic and some Protestant countries traditionally call the day before Ash Wednesday Fat Tuesday. The name predated the Reformation and referred to the common Christian tradition of eating special rich foods before the fasting season of Lent. Examples include Portuguese, Terça-feira Gorda; French, Mardi Gras; Italian, Martedì Grasso; Swedish, Fettisdagen; Danish Fastelavn; Norwegian, Fastelavens; Estonian, Vastlapäev. Other countries called it the Tuesday of Carnival, referring to the popular celebration of Carnival that became associated with the feasting: Spanish, Martes de Carnaval; Portuguese, Terça-feira de Carnaval; and German, Faschingsdienstag).

For German American populations, such as Pennsylvania Dutch Country, it is known as Fastnacht Day (also spelled Fasnacht, Fausnacht, Fauschnaut, or Fosnacht). The Fastnacht is made from fried potato dough and served with dark corn syrup. In John Updike's novel Rabbit, Run, the main character remembers a Fosnacht Day tradition in which the last person to rise from the table would be teased by the other family members and called a Fosnacht.

In Hawaii, this day is also known as Malasada Day, which dates back to the days of the sugar plantations of the 1800s. The resident Catholic Portuguese workers used up butter and sugar prior to Lent by making large batches of malasada, a fried dough.

In Iceland the day is known as Sprengidagur (Bursting Day) and is marked by eating salt meat and peas.

In Lithuania the day is called Užgavėnės. People eat pancakes (blynai) and Lithuanian-style doughnuts called spurgos.

In heavily Polish Catholic areas of the United States, such as Chicago and the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck, Michigan, Pączki Day is celebrated with pączki-eating contests, music and other Polish food. However, in Poland this celebration falls on the Thursday which precedes Ash Wednesday and is called Fat Thursday. On that day Poles eat a lot of pączki, which are a Polish version of doughnuts.

Semla

In Sweden, Estonia and Finland the day is marked by eating a traditional pastry, called semla or fastlagsbulle in Swedish, vastlakukkel in Estonian and laskiaispulla in Finnish. It is a sweet bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream. Originally, the pastry was only eaten on this day. It was sometimes served in a bowl of hot milk. Eventually the tradition evolved to eating the bun on each Tuesday of Lent leading up to Easter. After the Reformation, the Protestant Swedes no longer observed a "strict" Lent with fasting ritual.

Today, semlas are available in shops and bakeries every day from shortly after Christmas until Easter. The semla is often eaten as a regular pastry, without the hot milk. The semla is also traditional in Finland, where the pastry is often filled with jam instead of almond paste. However, it is notable that the original semla only denoted the bread-part of the pastry, which has made the word evolve separately in the Swedish language spoken in Sweden and Finland. Thus, today in Sweden semla means the Shrove Tuesday pastry, while in Finland's Swedish-speaking areas the word refers to a common bread roll (sämpylä in Finnish) in general. The word for the Shrove Tuesday pastry is in Finland either in Finnish laskiaispulla or in Swedish fastlagsbulle. The story behind the name of the Shrove Tuesday pastry is perhaps the most common example used to describe of linguistic evolution between the Swedish language spoken in the two countries. In Finland Shrove Tuesday is called "laskiaistiistai" and the origin of the word laskiainen is derived probably from Latin "carne lasciare" ("leaving the meat out", as the fast began on ash Wednesday). It also is celebrated in a carnival-like manner, as most of the schools and universities end the day's teaching at midday and the students and children will go out and find a hill or anyplace they can slide down something where they gather to play in the snow. In cities with universities the university students usually have a big party in the evening.

Traditions

File:Pancakes shrove tuesday.jpg

Pancakes with strawberry syrup and blackcurrants

Pancake Day in English-speaking countries

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Shrove Tuesday is often known colloquially as Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday. In the UK and for those who follow the Anglican tradition elsewhere it is known as Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday; in Ireland and other countries following the Catholic tradition it is known as Pancake Tuesday or Pancake Day.

A traditional pancake is slightly thicker than a French crêpe. It is served immediately after preparation. Long ago it was traditionally served with a meat-based stew (also a luxury then).

In modern times a sprinkling of granulated sugar, or icing sugar (known as powdered or confectioner's sugar in the US) and lemon juice has become more common. Many other sweet and savoury toppings are used (for example, in Canada and the U.S. pancakes are often served with maple syrup or preserves). In some countries, charity and commercial businesses organize events on Pancake Day to raise funds for charitable purposes.

Among Anglicans, Lutherans, some other Protestant denominations, including ethnic British communities in Canada, as well as Catholics, this day is also known as Pancake Tuesday, as it is customary to eat pancakes.

Pancakes and doughnuts are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up rich foodstuffs such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. The liturgical fasting emphasized eating plainer food and refraining from food that would give pleasure: In many cultures, this means no meat, dairy, or eggs.

Festivities

In England, as part of community celebration, many towns held traditional Shrove Tuesday football ('Mob football') games, dating as far back as the 12th century. The practice mostly died out in the 19th century, after the passing of the Highway Act 1835, which banned playing football on public highways. A number of towns have maintained the tradition, including Alnwick in Northumberland, Ashbourne in Derbyshire (called the Royal Shrovetide Football Match), Atherstone (called the Ball Game) in Warwickshire, Sedgefield (called the Ball Game) in County Durham, and St Columb Major (called Hurling the Silver Ball) in Cornwall.

Shrove Tuesday was once known as a 'half-holiday' in England. It started at 11:00am with the signalling of a church bell. On Pancake Day, pancake races are held in villages and towns across the United Kingdom. The tradition is said to have originated when a housewife from Olney was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time until she heard the church bells ringing for the service. She raced out of the house to church while still carrying her frying pan and pancake. It remains a relatively common festive tradition in the UK, particularly in England even today, is the pancake race whereby participants race through the streets whilst tossing pancakes into the air, catching them in the pan whilst running.

In 1634 William Fennor wrote in "Palinodia", "And tosse their Pancakes up for feare they burne."

The tradition of pancake racing had started long before that. The most famous pancake race, at Olney in Buckinghamshire, has been held since 1445. The contestants, traditionally women, carry a frying pan and race to the finishing line while tossing the pancakes as they go. The winner is the first to cross the line having tossed the pancake a certain number of times.

Since 1950 the people of Liberal, Kansas, and Olney have held the "International Pancake Day" race between the two towns. The two towns' competitors race along an agreed-upon measured course. The times of the two towns' competitors are compared, to determine a winner overall. After the 2000 race, Liberal was leading with 26 wins to Olney's 24. A similar race is held in North Somercotes of Lincolnshire in eastern England.

Scarborough, North Yorkshire celebrates by closing off the foreshore road (beach) to all traffic, closing schools early, and inviting all residents to skip in the road. Traditionally, long ropes were used from the fishing ships in the nearby harbour. The town crier rings in the day with the pancake bell, situated on the corner of Westborough (Main Street) and Huntress Row.

Other traditions

Another traditional food for this season is a sweet fried dumpling called cenci, usually served in the shape of a loose knot (a 5 cm wide, 20 cm long strip of dough one extremity of which is passed through a slit in the middle). In New Orleans and traditional French-speaking communities, such as Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, another traditional food is king cake. Traditionally the man who ate a bean baked in the cake was crowned the community king for Mardi Gras.

A Festy cock is a Scottish dish made of a ball of finely ground meal, wetted and patted, rolled into a pancake shape, then roasted in the hot ashes from a mill kiln. This was a dish to be eaten at Shrovetide.

In Estonia and Finland, this day, called Vastlapäev and Laskiainen, respectively, is associated with hopes for the coming year. On this day, families go sledding and eat split pea and ham soup. A toy is made from the ham bone by tying the bone to a string and spinning it around to make a whistling noise.

Finns also share the Swedish tradition of eating marzipan and cream-filled pastry, although they often replace marzipan with strawberry jam. The Finnish name is laskiaispulla. It is most often accompanied with a hot, red or black currant drink. Adults sometimes drink glögi, - a heated mulled wine.

In Germany, Austria and Slovenia, people traditionally eat rich pastries such as Berliner, krapfen or krof.

Dates

The date of Shrove Tuesday is dependent on that of Easter, a moveable feast based on the cycles of the moon. The date can vary from as early as 3 February to as late as 9 March.

Shrove Tuesday will occur on the following dates in coming years:

2010 — 16 February 2011 — 8 March 2012 — 21 February 2013 — 12 February 2014 — 4 March 2015 — 17 February 2016 — 9 February 2017 — 28 February 2018 — 13 February 2019 — 5 March 2020 — 25 February 2021 — 16 February 2022 — 1 March

2023 — 21 February 2024 — 13 February 2025 — 4 March 2026 — 17 February 2027 — 9 February 2028 — 29 February 2029 — 13 February 2030 — 5 March 2031 — 25 February 2032 — 10 February 2033 — 1 March 2034 — 21 February 2035 — 6 February 2036 — 26 February

2037 — 17 February 2038 — 9 March 2039 — 22 February 2040 — 14 February 2041 — 5 March 2042 — 18 February 2043 — 10 February 2044 — 1 March 2045 — 21 February 2046 — 6 February 2047 — 26 February 2048 — 18 February 2049 — 2 March 2050 — 22 February

See also

• Collop Monday
• Hurling the Silver Ball
• Mardi Gras
• Mardi Gras in Mobile — United States French-Catholic festival
• Fat Thursday
• Fasnachts
• Maslenitsa
• Nickanan Night
• Powder Day
• Bonfire of the Vanities
• Royal Shrovetide Football

External links

• Wilson's Almanac: Sources and quotes concerning Shrove Tuesday customs
• History of the Olney, England pancake race
• History of the Liberal, Kansas pancake race
• Great pancakes for Shrove Tuesday
• Pancake Day Game
• Pancake day Song from British TV