Pancake Day
@owlwings (43910)
Cambridge, England
February 9, 2016 2:07am CST
Tuesday 9 February is Pancake Day. It’s also called Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras or Carnival and several other names around the world. It’s the day before the season of Lent begins and most of the customs associated with it are to do with using up all the rich and meaty foods before the Christian fasting period begins.
Here in the UK very few people now observe the 40 days of fasting before Easter but, in a few towns, Shrove Tuesday is celebrated publicly with a Pancake Race where the contestants run a course while tossing pancakes in a frying pan. One of the places where this happens is Olney in Buckinghamshire and they have for many years linked up with the town of Liberal in Kansas, USA to have an International Pancake Day.
The story of the origin of the custom is supposed to be as follows. Over 500 years ago in 1445, a woman was busy using up fat and eggs by making pancakes when she heard the Church bell ring for Mass. She put on her scarf (women were required to cover their heads in Church in those days) and ran to the Church with the pan containing the pancake still in her hand. In the years following, others joined in and it became a race to see who could get to the Church first while tossing their pancake and without dropping it, of course!
I shall be making and eating pancakes today, traditionally served sprinkled with sugar and with a squeeze of lemon juice. What customs do you have involving pancakes in your country? If you celebrate the start of Lent, how do you do it?
23 people like this
25 responses
@JudyEv (340223)
• Rockingham, Australia
9 Feb 16
We always have pancakes on Shrove Tuesday - except when we don't - meaning if we forget which is very seldom. We might have them with a savoury filling as a main course or a sweet filling. I love them just with lemon and sugar too. We are having friends over tonight for pancakes and I think we'll have prawns in a white sauce with them. Vince is the cook so it's up to him.
5 people like this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
9 Feb 16
I am sorry but I can't imagine Prawns in white sauce will go with pancakes. I suppose I am thinking of how sweet our pancakes can be here in the US.4 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
9 Feb 16
@ScribbledAdNauseum I believe that Americans do tend to think of pancakes as sweet and often smother them in maple syrup (which is good, of course) but Mexican burritos are also popular in some parts of the States and they are really nothing more than filled pancakes.
I quite often make pancakes which I fill with a savoury filling - meat or spinach or something similar, roll up, cover with a sauce and bake in the oven something like cannelloni.
1 person likes this
@moonchild117 (1987)
• Philippines
9 Feb 16
That's quite interesting. I'm sure to be reminded of that story every time I make pancakes. 
Here, we traditionally don't have Mardi Gras or something like that. All I know is that the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is the time where churches burn the palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday, these will be used for the ash that will be put on the forehead. And then every Friday of Lent, traditional Catholics in our country cannot eat red meat for the day, only vegetables and fish.
Here, we traditionally don't have Mardi Gras or something like that. All I know is that the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is the time where churches burn the palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday, these will be used for the ash that will be put on the forehead. And then every Friday of Lent, traditional Catholics in our country cannot eat red meat for the day, only vegetables and fish.2 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
9 Feb 16
Originally the fast lasted for the 40 days (excluding Sundays) up until Easter and was partly to commemorate the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness before commencing His mission and also to prepare believers spiritually for the solemnity of the Crucifixion and the subsequent celebration of Easter.
@moonchild117 (1987)
• Philippines
10 Feb 16
@owlwings Yes, fasting and abstinence is observed by Catholics here, especially during Fridays of Lent. I think there are still who do fasting for the whole 40 days, but Catholics now just do that on Fridays. And on Ash Wednesday, too.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (471456)
• Switzerland
9 Feb 16
We do not make pancakes on this "Martedì Grasso" (Fat Tuesday), but traditionally, we make fried pastries. Here in the south of Switzerland we make "chiacchiere" - it means talks, surely there is a reason. Today there are Carnival parades in all Swiss cities and villages. This is the photo of the chiacchiere I made yesterday, they are fried, but very light.
4 people like this
@moonchild117 (1987)
• Philippines
9 Feb 16
Those look delicious! What is it made of?
2 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
9 Feb 16
They look very delicious and, of course, use much the same ingredients as pancakes - eggs, milk, flour, sugar and fat for frying ... all things which must be eaten up before Lent. I wonder whether they are called "ciacchiere" because one gossips while eating them. They certainly seem to be things to be shared with a coffee. Perhaps, though, it is because they are crisp and make a noise when eaten like people chatting.
Wikipedia describes them under the name of "Angels Wings" because they are, apparently, often cut into diamond shapes, like wings. However, I think that the various forms of Angels Wings in various countries are not always specific to pre-Lenten festivities.
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
9 Feb 16
@moonchild117 Here's an Italian recipe I found:
A crispy treat eaten throughout Italy during the Carnival season.
3 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (82789)
• United States
9 Feb 16
I don't celebrate with pancakes (even though I love them with butter & maple syrup) but we call it Fat Tuesday and we have a big dinner with the idea that tomorrow is a day of fasting (small meals).
2 people like this
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
9 Feb 16
I just posted about the exact same thing and then I saw this! I just had my pancakes. Tomorrow we go to church for Eucharist and the imposition of ashes.
2 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
9 Feb 16
I think that the Pancake Race could be vastly popular in Japan (especially on Japanese television, which would doubtless add all sorts of inconvenient and painful extras to amuse the audience at the expense of embarrassing the competitors!).
How are the ashes imposed in your church? Here they are most commonly smudged on the forehead in the shape of a cross but I believe that elsewhere they are simply sprinkled on the head.
@marsha32 (6631)
• United States
28 Feb 17
Yes, tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. I'm hoping to get my oldest daughter to go with the children too since she's working days now.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
9 Feb 16
@owlwings We do it the same way you do, but I think Anglicans all over do it that way. Protestant churches in Japan are not big on Ash Wednesday, though some observe Lent with a special Bible reading series.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (180863)
• United States
14 Mar 16
That is neat. I have heard the term Shrove Tuesday but I didn't know what it meant!
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
14 Mar 16
'Shrove' is an Old English word from a verb 'to shrive', which means 'to give forgiveness for sins'. Shrove Tuesday was traditionally the day when forgiveness for sins was given in preparation for Lent as well as being the day when one was supposed to use up all the foods which couldn't be eaten during Lent.
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
9 Feb 16
This is somewhat unrelated, but I thought Id' share it anyway.
When you were talking about the "race to get to church with frying pan in hand." it made me think of all of the contests on game shows where people have to race from one side to another with an item. I don't know if perhaps this new contest somehow originates from these races back then but thought it was worth a mention.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30403)
• United Kingdom
11 Feb 16
Funny that people are more keen to convert to Islam, in which fasting, covering the hair, attending religious services etc are more 'religiously' enforced/encouraged, than to convert to Christianity which has become more relaxed over the decades. Maybe more people would identify as Christians if it was more of a challenge to modern life. In fact maybe I'll start a discussion about that!
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
9 Feb 16
I'm looking forward to my tea-time tonight. Yummy!
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
9 Feb 16
Tonight I'm going to try a French recipe - Galettes de Sarrasin - using buckwheat flour (and incorporating 50g of melted butter into the batter just before cooking).
@Ladypeace (2028)
• Singapore
10 Feb 16
What a fascinating history behind the pancake race, an eye opener! Pancakes are so yum, I love them. This inspires me to go make some, but I won't be tossing them since I'm a noob.
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
9 Feb 16
Maple syrup is good, of course. Here the tradition is to serve them with a sprinkling of caster sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice but I actually prefer cheese pancakes (the cheese may be incorporated into the pancake batter or may be added afterwards as a filling).
1 person likes this
@garymarsh6 (23405)
• United Kingdom
11 Feb 16
I made mine too with a squeeze of lemon and golden syrup!
1 person likes this
