The last Tuesday before Lent is called Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day. It is a British tradition but it's also celebrated in other countries.
Why is it called Pancake Day? It's a custom to eat pancakes on this date. Lent represents a time of abstinence and pancakes contain all the things that aren't allowed during this period: fat, eggs, butter, milk, sugar. So people indulge themshelves eating them.
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. Thus Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the custom for Christians to be "shriven" before the start of Lent.
This is also the time for carnival ( Latin carne levare = to take away meat) or Mardi Grass (French "Fat Tuesday").
People celebrate it having parties or wearing all kinds of fancy dresses and eating different things:
- Iceland : salted meat and peas
- Sweden: pastry called semla
- Finland: pea soup and whipped-cream filled buns.
- What do you eat in Spain? T_ _ _ _ _ _ S
In Britain it is traditional to hold pancake races all over the country but the most famous one and the origen of it is held in Olney, Buckinghamshire.
This famous pancake race has been held since 1445. The contestants, traditionally women, carry a frying pan and race to over a 415 yard course to the finishing line. The rules are strict: contestants have to toss their pancake at both the start and the finish, as well as wear an apron and a headscarf. The race is followed by a church service.
Do you feel like making pancakes and celebrating too? Here is a pancake recipe
and a video too.
If you want to know more about this traditional date, click on the following links:
* Project Britain: a wonderful web with lots of information about Shrove Tuesday, Lent, Easter, Pancakes and how it is celebrated all over the world.
* Sandy Millin´s Blog: with lots of activities to do about it.
This famous pancake race has been held since 1445. The contestants, traditionally women, carry a frying pan and race to over a 415 yard course to the finishing line. The rules are strict: contestants have to toss their pancake at both the start and the finish, as well as wear an apron and a headscarf. The race is followed by a church service.
Do you feel like making pancakes and celebrating too? Here is a pancake recipe
and a video too.
If you want to know more about this traditional date, click on the following links:
* Project Britain: a wonderful web with lots of information about Shrove Tuesday, Lent, Easter, Pancakes and how it is celebrated all over the world.
* Sandy Millin´s Blog: with lots of activities to do about it.
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