}

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Happy Pancake Day

Growing up—literally—in the church, I nevertheless paid little attention to Shrove Tuesday. Even Ash Wednesday wasn’t a huge deal, just the kick-off to the 40 days of Lent. Catholics were big on both and, since we weren’t Catholic, largely ignoring Shrove Tuesday and mostly downplaying Ash Wednesday both seemed to me a way of exerting independence from the Roman church.

So imagine my surprise, all these years later, when religion is no longer a part of my life, to find out that “Among Anglicans, Lutherans, some other Protestant denominations, including ethnic British communities in Canada, as well a few Catholics, this day is also known as Pancake Tuesday, as it is customary to eat pancakes.” Really?! Then why didn’t my family?

Seriously, I actually heard about this accidentally today on Twitter when Curt Smith (best known, perhaps, as co-founder of the 80s group Tears for Fears) mentioned it in a Tweet. The Wikipedia article I quoted above contains the details. All of it was new to me.

It’s the second time in a month that I’ve found Wikipedia to be not wrong, but incompletely correct. What I mean is, they state things that are true, but they don’t tell the complete story. In this case, I’d never heard of “Pancake Day” until today, so it’s clearly not a tradition among all Lutherans.

Some people constantly dismiss Wikipedia as if it’s always incorrect. But I’ve never discovered anything that was completely wrong, so I’m kind of reassured to find something that’s not completely correct.

And, oddly, I’ve been craving pancakes today…

8 comments:

toujoursdan said...

I am a practising Anglican and Shrove Tuesday has been part of my life since I was a kid. Going to church and eating pancakes is part of the deal. LOL

We have never called it "Pancake Day" (unless you're explaining it to kids) either.

Arthur Schenck said...

I never knew any Episcopalians (US Anglicans) growing up, and the second half of my childhood was in a town dominated by Catholics. So, to me Shrove Tuesday (and even Ash Wednesday) are always associated in my mind with Catholics.

At any rate, I find this whole pancake thing fascinating—especially because I never heard of it until yesterday!

Enjoy your pancakes!

Roger Owen Green said...

PANCAKES!

Arthur Schenck said...

Thanks for the link, Roger! But, I still don't get this "Pancake Day" thing…

Roger Owen Green said...

It's Fat Tuesday, something you might "give up" for Lent. And you need the larder for the 40 days.

Arthur Schenck said...

I've never given up anything for Lent. We Lutherans didn't do that.

d said...

I had never heard of it either, Arthur (and I grew up Episcopalian). Check out this Mental Floss article, though: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/47735

Roger Owen Green said...

The Methodists weren't required to "give up" stuff. But we often did as a matter of solidarity.

Actually, the general thread of Lent these days, at least in the Protestant churches I've attended, is not to "give up", but to "take on" - being more generous, patient and the like.