Just Once A Year?

Pancakes are delicious but, for many people, they are only eaten on one day in the year – Pancake Tuesday. There may be then a temptation to eat as many as possible on that day and that is quite understandable as there are usually no other opportunity in the year to enjoy them.

It could be that the preparations required, especially the prospect of having to toss the pancakes, may be off-putting. It is more likely that it is the tradition behind it which restricts eating pancakes just to one day.

Pancake Tuesday is, of course, the last day before the Christian season of Lent and Lent has always been a period of preparation for Easter. Such a period was marked by fasting, or at least the consumption of plainer foods and in smaller amounts. The tradition is continued today as people ‘give up’ luxuries like chocolate or cigarettes for Lent.

In former days, this meant no meat. For many people, this was not really a hardship as what little meat they had, often from animals killed in the autumn, was probably eaten up already during the long winter. So it was other foods, like dairy produce and eggs, which were to be given up. In consequence, the day before Lent began, Pancake Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday, was the day to eat up the foods not allowed in Lent and which would not keep until the period of Lent (40 days) had ended.

The alternative name for Pancake Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, is a reminder that, immediately before Lent, people would go to church to confess their sins. ‘Shrove’ comes from the Old English word ‘shrive’ which means to confess your sins. The priest would grant them absolution and they would begin the special time of Lent with a sense of forgiveness.

Like pancakes, it is easy to make our coming to church, and our coming to God, a once a year thing, only on special occasions such as a funeral or wedding. But God’s love and forgiveness is on offer all year round.

I hope you enjoy your pancakes, as I shall, on this normally once a year occasion. Perhaps we ought to eat them more often and be reminded to come to God more frequently than once a year to seek His love and forgiveness.