Snowy Shrove Tuesday!

For many Christian people, Shrove Tuesday marks the last day before the beginning of Lent – a period of penitence and renewal which leads up to Holy Week and Easter. Traditionally it is seen as the last opportunity, before the Lent fast begins, to feast on foods which would be prohibited for the next forty days – meat, fish, fatty and dairy food, sugar, and eggs. For some people, therefore, today is known as Mardi Gras – 'Fat Tuesday' – a day of indulgence before the plainer food of Lent, while for others it is known as Pancake Day, since pancakes are a great way to use up eggs, milk, and sugar. Interestingly, when this tradition began, chickens were older breeds and would not have laid eggs in the winter. On Shrove Tuesday, people would have been eating up the last of the preserved eggs, which were probably coming to the end of their preservation period. By Easter Day, the chickens would be starting to lay eggs again.

Since today would be a good day for getting people together to share in a Pancake-Fest, the short light-hearted liturgy, below, is offered to set the scene while getting everything ready for the cooking and eating! You will need flour, salt, milk, butter, eggs, a mixing bowl, and a whisk. Check quantities in a recipe book, depending on how many people are there. Everyone is invited to join in saying the responsive words in bold type.

We come here today just as we are,

each with a history of rights and wrongs:

       We come from the chequered mixture called life.

We long to stay with what is familiar, comfortable, predictable:

       But we are called to move on, and challenged to change.

As we sift some flour into this bowl, so we sift through our regrets:

       We lay aside that which we need no longer carry.

As we add a little salt, so we welcome savour in our lives:

       And we add an egg, symbol of new life and new possibilities.

Finally we add milk and butter:

       Symbols of the nourishment we have had before,

       which we need for the future.

We mix together these ingredients of the past:

       And we are ready to flip forward into tomorrow.

May we find fullness in faith and sweetness in serving:

       May we know the taste for truth,

       and the hunger for helping others.

       So may it be!


(Check out my blog 'Celebrating the Year' tomorrow for a liturgy for Ash Wednesday!)