Pancake Day

Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday") / "Pancake Day" - 47 days before Easter Sunday



This is the last day before Lent. "Shrove" means to 'have heard confession, assigned penance and absolved'. From the Middle Ages until the late Renaissance, eating all animal products except fish (which were considered bloodless) was forbidden during Lent. In more modern times the Lenten fast was confined to Ash Wednesday and all Fridays during Lent, and abstinence from meat did not include other animal products (eggs, milk and cheese, for example). Therefore on Shrove Tuesday people made pancakes to use up their supplies of eggs, milk, butter and other fats. These cakes were made in flat pans (hence pancakes) and were seen as a sign of self-indulgence before the fast!




richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK