SHROVE TUESDAY

This year February 21 is Shrove Tuesday (aka Fat Tuesday or Pancake Day) and is always the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Among Christian cultures pancakes are eaten because they are made out of the main food items - eggs, sugar, butter, flour - whose consumption was often restricted during the fasting of Lent.

Among the Pennsylvania Dutch today is known as Fastnacht Day. Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian cultures call today "Carnival," from the words "carne levar" which mean "to take away meat." Carnival often includes street processions and fancy dress, such as in the New Orleans Mardi Gras.

In Hawaii, Shrove Tuesday is "Malasada Day" which dates back to the sugar plantations of the 1800's when workers used up their butter and sugar prior to Lent by making large batches of fluffy fried pastries called malasadas. In Iceland it is called "Bursting Day" and is marked by eating (too much?) salted meat and peas. Lithuanians today eat rich doughnuts, and Swedes eat sweet pastries.

In some Canadian cultures, today's pancakes have small tokens cooked into them to be collected by the children. Some English towns hold Shrove Tuesday football games and a Pancake Race which dates to a time long ago when a housewife ran from her house to get to her church on time while still carrying her frying pan and pancake. The pancake race at Olney, Buckinghamshire, has been held since 1445. The children of Whitechapel, Lancashire, go around asking "Please a pancake", hoping to receive oranges or sweets, a practice that arose from when workers visited manor houses to ask for extra food on the holiday.

And this is only a partial list of celebrations for Shrove Tuesday. Do you have a special way to celebrate the day before Lent?

God told His covenant people, “Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me." (Exodus 23:14) Those were the Festivals of Harvest, Weeks and Pentecost. It is still a good thing to join together with other Christians and celebrate the goodness and providence of God, especially when it comes just before a time when we are more somber and reflective in practicing our Christian faith.

I think I will make pancakes for breakfast today.