107 W. Church Street Greeneville
TN
Enjoy pancakes for dinner (and all the fixings) on Shrove Tuesday as we prepare for the season of Lent.
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Why do some Christian churches worldwide serve pancakes on Shrove Tuesday (The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday)?
It’s not an easy answer, and differences of opinion surround the tradition of pancake suppers that seem to have become so popular in Christian churches on that Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday is the term used in the United Kingdom to refer to the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which begins the liturgical season of Lent.
Pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent as a way of using up the eggs, milk, and sugar (rich foods typically “given up” for the season of Lent). In the United Kingdom, the day is also known as “Pancake Day” or “Pancake Tuesday” because eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday is customary. In other parts of the world — for example, in historically Catholic and French-speaking parts of the United States and elsewhere — the day is called Mardi Gras (or Fat Tuesday).
The 40 days of Lent form a fasting period during which only the plainest foodstuffs are eaten. Therefore, rich ingredients such as eggs, milk, and sugar are disposed of immediately before the commencement of the fast. Pancakes and doughnuts were an efficient way of using up these perishable goods and provided an opportunity to celebrate a feast before the fast.
The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb “shrive,” which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by confessing. Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the shriving (confession) that the Anglo-Saxon Christians were expected to do immediately before Lent.
Shrove Tuesday is the last day of “Shrovetide,” which is an English equivalent to the Carnival (Meat Festival) tradition that developed separately out of the countries of Latin Europe. In countries of the Carnival tradition, the day before Ash Wednesday is known as the “Tuesday of Carnival,” or the last day, one could consume meat before Lent. The term “Shrove Tuesday” is not widely known in the United States, especially in those regions that celebrate Mardi Gras on the day before Ash Wednesday.
