Shrove Tuesday is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It is also known as "Pancake Day". The reason that pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent is that the 40 days of Lent form a period of liturgical fasting, during which only the plainest foodstuffs may be eaten. Therefore, rich ingredients such as eggs, milk, and sugar are disposed of immediately prior to the commencement of the fast. Pancakes and doughnuts were therefore an efficient way of using up these perishable goods, besides providing a minor celebratory feast prior to the fast itself.
Danny and I had a good chuckle that it is the Americans who have Fat Tuesday in which to drink themselves silly, while the Brits eat pancakes. First of all, this goes against almost all cultural stereotypes that I know of. Secondly, they don't even EAT American style pancakes here. They are flat, crepe style cakes.
I think I would rather have a Hurricane and King Cake.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Happy Shrove Tuesday
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2 comments:
That is funny. They have been having Fasnacht here in the Catholic cantons and have been dressing up in weird costumes. My favorite has been the "Cesar" costume that has a sombrero and poncho. Not sure we could get away with that one in Dallas.
Amy S. and I went down for the pancake toss too! We probably saw you there and didn't even know it! We went for the 10:15 one at Parlaiment. I think we got there at 10:20 and missed the entire thing. We saw them standing around and some of them posed for pictures, so we did get a few. We then decided to do something really touristy and go to Madame Tousaud's, we had a nice lunch, Starbucks and headed home. I wish we knew you were down there! Hope to meet you soon!
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