If Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) is all about using up the spare flour and milk before the start of Lent...?

Question

...why do people go out and specifically buy pancakes or pancake ingredients?

Answer 1

Originally it was about using up EGGS before lent, not flour and milk - they were still eaten during lent, eggs weren't.

The original reason is practical, not religious, and goes back way before Christianity claimed it. Typically, cockerels ( me - see pic ) are more active in spring and the eggs were kept during this period to breed new chicks. This broadly aligns with lent.....

...."saving fertilised eggs to hatch new hens during spring" turned into "not eating eggs during lent"

This practice is followed in the middle east, the root of much Christian tradition, mainly because the climate is too hot to rear chicks at other times of year. More temparate climates can rear chicks throughout most of the year.

that gem of trivia has got to be worth 10 points, eh ?

But i get your point. Once you commercialise any tradition it gets full of contradictions.......heres another

Lets import lots of food to celebrate local harvest festivals......

Answer 2

But there's more to Shrove Tuesday than pigging out on pancakes or taking part in a public pancake race. The pancakes themselves are part of an ancient custom with deeply religious roots.

Penitence
Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the ritual of shriving that Christians used to undergo in the past. In shriving, a person confesses their sins and receives absolution for them.

When a person receives absolution for their sins, they are forgiven for them and released from the guilt and pain that they have caused them.

In the Catholic or Orthodox context, the absolution is pronounced by a priest.

This tradition is very old. Over 1000 years ago a monk wrote in the Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Institutes:

In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him.Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Institutes
Shrove Tuesday celebrations
Shrove Tuesday is a day of celebration as well as penitence, because it's the last day before Lent.

Lent is a time of abstinence, of giving things up. So Shrove Tuesday is the last chance to indulge yourself, and to use up the foods that aren't allowed in Lent.

Giving up foods: but not wasting them
In the old days there were many foods that observant Christians would not eat during Lent: foods such as meat and fish, fats, eggs, and milky foods.

So that no food was wasted, families would have a feast on the shriving Tuesday, and eat up all the foods that wouldn't last the forty days of Lent without going off.

The need to eat up the fats gave rise to the French name Mardi Gras ('fat Tuesday'). Pancakes became associated with Shrove Tuesday as they were a dish that could use up all the eggs, fats and milk in the house with just the addition of flour.

The origin of pancake racing
Pancake races are thought to have begun in 1445. A woman had lost track of the time on Shrove Tuesday, and was busy cooking pancakes in her kitchen.

Suddenly she heard the church bell ringing to call the faithful to church for confession. The woman raced out of her house and ran all the way to church; still holding her frying pan and wearing her apron.

Going for gold in the pancake Olympics
One of the most famous pancake races is held at Olney in Buckinghamshire over a 415 yard course. The rules are strict; contestants have to toss their pancake at both the start and the finish, as well as wearing an apron and a scarf. The race is followed by a church service.

Since 1950 Olney has competed with Liberal in Kansas, which holds an identical race, to see which town can produce the fastest competitor. After the 2000 race, Liberal was leading with 26 wins to Olney's 24.

Answer 3

And is also the eggs, butter, sugar and all other non-lenten ingredients, alot of the European counrty's make pastrys or in the Eastern European areas they make a donut like treat called "Pushki" filling with all kinds of things even prunes. Pancakes were something based in the Old English period of around 1500-1600 AD.

The custom is from the middle ages when the Church ruled with an iron fist. They felt these things were to decadant, so they were force to obstain from them until after Good Friday. That is why we have such elaborate meals after that date, as do alot of other religions during Holy Days, like Passover for the Jewish people and Ramadan with the Muslim religion.

Answer 4

It goes back to the days when practices about fasting were much more rigid and storage of perishables was not feasible. People buy them now to keep a tradition or habit going but it doesn't have any particular significance beyond that. A bit like some people still eat fish and not meat on Fridays even though the abstinence on Fridays was abolished by the second Vatican council in the 60's.

Answer 5

Traditions always start with a great idea but then up as a marketing concept, just look at Christmas, well before Christmas day people running around spending money they cannot afford on gifts they don't even know what or why they are buying them.I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with why we should celebrate any holiday.

Answer 6

Its just an old tradition, when staple foods were flour eggs and milk. These days, we would have to make pancakes out of burgers, chips, nuggets and pot noodles if we were emptying our cupboards for 40 days!

Answer 7

Oh that's what it's about. I much prefer to go to Ashbourne on shrove tuesday. Drink beer. On to another pub. Drink beer. On to another pub. etc.. Can't wait. Commences in Derby At 9am..

Answer 8

Because it is an old custom and nowadays does not quite have the same heartfelt meaning as it used to. It is just a custom by rote now.

Answer 9

It called Tradition. You know we Englishmen go out in the midday sun

Answer 10

Have i missed it???? ive got plenty of flour that needs using up, and eggs that will be out of date next week.