Wednesday, February 7, 2018

What is Shrove Tuesday?

Pancake Day will be celebrated across the world next week, which means it's time to get your frying pans ready and brush up on your pancake-flipping skills.

Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Pancake Day, always falls exactly 47 days before Easter which means this year it will be marked on Tuesday, February 13th. It is traditionally a feasting day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent is a time of fasting, with many Christians giving up luxuries during the period.

Shrove Tuesday dates back to Anglo-Saxon times when Christians would go to confession and were ‘shriven’ (acquitted from their sins). A bell would be rung to call people to confession and this came to be known as the Pancake Bell.

Eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday comes from a tradition of using up any rich foods such as eggs and fats in your house which are just the ingredients you need for pancakes.

The ingredients for pancakes are said to symbolise four points of significance at Easter and Springtime of the year. Eggs signify creation, flour is said to be the staff of life, salt is for wholesomeness and milk symbolises purity.


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