Wilson's Almanac on Shrove Tuesday,
Pancake Day
Related terms: shrove pancake day recipe mix
Easter customs origins
Easter folklore history Fasnacht fasting Lent carnival Mardis Gras
Pancake
Day
The
origins and folklore of Shrove Tuesday
By Pip Wilson
Shrove Tuesday 22 x 29
cm, an engraving by the Dutch engraver H.Cock after the design by Hieronymous Bosch, and dated 1567
"...
as fit as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday."
William Shakespeare (All's Well that Ends
Well)
Shrove-Tuesday, at whose entrance in the morning all
the whole kingdom is inquiet, but by that time the clocke strikes eleven,
which (by the help of a knavish sexton) is commonly before nine, then
there is a bell rung, cal'd the Pancake-bell, the sound whereof makes
thousands of people distracted, and forgetful either of manners or
humanitie; then there is a thing called wheaten floure, which the cookes
do mingle with water, eggs, spice, and other tragical, magical
inchantments, and then they put it by little and little into a frying pan
of boiling suet, where it makes a confused dismal hissing, (like the
Lernean Snakes in the reeds of Acheron, Stix, or Phlegeton) until at last,
by the skill of the Cooke, it is transformed into the forme of a
Flip-Jack, cal'd a Pancake, which ominous incantation the ignorant people
doe devoure very greedily.
John Taylor, English poet
(1580 - 1654) ;
Jack-a-Lent, His Beginning and Entertainment (1630)
Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) (moveable feast, February 8 in 2005)
Known
in French as Mardi Gras ('Fat Tuesday')
Tomorrow (Ash
Wednesday, also moveable, is February 9 in
2005) begins the 6-week period of fasting in the Christian world,
known as Lent, the
forty days' fast preceding Easter.
Today is known to the French as Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), as it is the day
that all foods may be eaten. Pancakes were popular as families ate the last of
the eggs and butter that they were allowed before Lent.
The name
‘Shrove’ comes from the archaic English word ‘to shrive’,
which means to confess or hear confessions of sin, a practice that was
customary in the church on this day.
The custom of eating pancakes at Shrove Tuesday was popular in many parts of Europe, including many parts distant from Britain, such as the Zemaitija province of Lithuania where it was an important celebration. Pancakes were popular as families ate the last of the eggs and butter that they were allowed before Lent.
To the Germans it is known as
Fasnacht. The word has also come to mean a diamond-shaped foodstuff that's eaten on the occasion: a yeast-raised potato pastry that's deep-fried like a doughnut. They were originally made and served on Shrove Tuesday to use up the fat that was forbidden during Lent.
People traditionally ate bacon, meat and black
puddings as well as pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. There was dice and card
playing, mumming and revelry. Wagons were drawn by horses today, all
decorated with hundreds of bells. Today was apprentices' holiday in old
England. They also presented their petitions to parliament on this day.
The folklorist Brand says Pancake Day came from
the pagan Fornacalia,
in commemoration of making bread, before ovens were invented, by the
goddess Fornax. The
medieval Roman writer, Polydore Virgil,
explains how the feasts of Bacchus were celebrated in Rome at the same
time of year.
In the parish of Inverness, Scotland, a football
match used to be held between the married and unmarried women.
In parts of Scotland, today is called Fasten's E'en, or
Bannocky Day, but these days is not celebrated much, though cockfighting
used to be common. A crowdie, or dinner was
traditionally held on this day. A ring was put in the basin or porringer
of the unmarried people, and whoever found it had an omen of marriage.
Then the Bannich Junit, or
‘sauty bannocks’ were brought out. They were made of eggs and meal
mixed with salt to make them ‘sauty’, then baked on a gridiron. Some
article was mixed with the dough, and whoever got it in his bannock
would be married within a year. Bannich
brauders were dreaming bannocks and contained a little soot; the baker
had to bake these in silence. Each person would take one, slip off
silently to bed, lay his or her head on the bannock, and be assured of
dreaming about his or her sweetheart.
A famous pancake race at Olney in Buckinghamshire (pictured at right) has been
held since 1445.
In Finland, the Shrove
Tuesday specialty is a bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream: recipe.
Mmmmm .....
In Brazil,
today is Carnival;
; in Louisiana,
USA, it is Mardi Gras.
Folklore and origins of Easter
Calculator for Easter
Date
Shrove Tuesday: when?
Tossing the pancake
The ceremony on Shrove Tuesday, though it has been modified slightly from time to time, has remained substantially unaltered for centuries. In the morning one of the vergers from the Abbey, bearing a silver mace, conducts the cook, who carries the pancake in a frying pan, into the great hall where all the boys are assembled. When the room was divided by a curtain, this was then drawn aside, and the cook threw the pancake over the bar towards the door, whereupon all the boys scrambled for it. Of late years only a
few – one representing each form chosen by the scholars themselves--have taken part in the scramble. Going forward, the cook hurls the pancake aloft in the direction of the bar. If it goes clean over, the selected boys make a wild rush for it in an endeavour to catch it whole, and usually failing, then struggle for it on the floor. The one who secures it, or the biggest portion, is entitled to a guinea. The scrimmage is known as the
'greeze'.
Stone, Sir Benjamin, Pictures of National Life and History,
Cassell and Company, London, 1906
“At Westminster School, the following custom is observed to this day:—At 11 o'clock a.m. a verger of the Abbey, in his gown, bearing a silver baton, emerges from the college kitchen, followed by the cook of-the school, in his white apron, jacket, and cap, and carrying a pancake. On arriving at the school-room door, he announces himself, 'The cook;' and having entered the school-room, he advances to the bar which separates the upper school from the lower one, twirls the pancake in the pan, and then tosses it over the bar into the upper school, among a crowd of boys, who scramble for the pancake: and he who gets it unbroken, and carries it to the deanery, demands the honorarium of a guinea (sometimes two guineas), from the Abbey funds, though the custom is not mentioned in the Abbey statutes: the cook also receives two guineas for his performance.”
Robert Chambers,
(Ed.), The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection
with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 (1879 Edition
is online and 1869
edition here
with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year:
A Personal Selection from Chambers' Book of Days)
Cockfight
beneath a rainbow,
by Henry Hole, c. 1805
Throwing
at cocks
Yesterday being Shrove Tuesday, the orders of the justices in the City and Liberty of Westminster were so well observed that few cocks were seen to be thrown at, so that it is hoped this barbarous custom will be left
off.
London Daily Advertiser, Wednesday, March
7, 1759
In
some places it was common practice to put a cock in an earthenware vessel made
for the purpose, with holes for it to stick its head and tail out, and strung
up about four metres above street; people would throw stones till it broke, and
the winner got the chook. All kinds of cockfighting practices took were
associated with Shrove Tuesday.
Tuesday se'nnight, being Shrove-tide, as a person was amusing himself, along with several others, with the barbarous custom of throwing a cock, at Howdon Clough, near Birstall, the stick pitched upon the head of Jonathan Speight, a youth about thirteen years of age, and killed him on the spot. The man was committed to York Castle on
Friday.
Newcastle, England, Courant, March
15, 1783; 'Leeds, March 11th,
1783'
At
North Walsham, Norfolk, in
about 1760, some wags got the head and tail of a dead cock, and put
them with an owl in the vessel. The owl flew away.
Cockfighting,
which was the regular Shrovetide activity, was prohibited as early as
the reign of Edward
III of England. Obviously it did not die out.
At
Hoddeston,
Hertfordshire, England, a bell, used in olden times to announce the
time to put out, and light, all fire and candle light, was rung on Shrove
Tuesday morning at 4am. People could make and eat pancakes until the bell was
rung again at 8pm. This bell was, appropriately, known as the ‘Pancake
Bell’.
At
Kingston-upon-Thames,
Twickenham, Bushy and Hampton-wick, all near London, this day was known
popularly as ‘Football Day’, on which a football was carried from door to
door and money begged. At noon, the ball was kicked by all and sundry, all the
shop and house windows on the street previously having been boarded up against
breakage. Even ‘respectable’ people became involved with the fun and
games. After about four hours, with several balls and several concurrent
games, everyone repaired to the pubs. The council of Kingston tried to ban it,
but the courts overruled them.
"Battering with massive weapons a cock tied to a stake, is an annual diversion," says an essayist in The Gentleman's Magazine (1737), "that for time immemorial has prevailed in this island." A cock has the misfortune to be called in Latin by the same word which signifies a Frenchman. "In our wars with France, in former ages, our ingenious forefathers," says he, "invented this emblematical way of expressing their derision of, and resentment towards that nation; and poor Monsieur at the stake was pelted by men and boys in a very rough and hostile manner." He instances the same thought at Blenheim House, where, over the portals, is finely carved in stone the figure of a monstrous lion tearing to pieces a harmless cock, which may be justly called a pun in architecture. "Considering the many ill consequences," the essayist goes on to observe, "that attend this sport, I wonder it has so long subsisted among us. How many warm disputes and bloody quarrels has it occasioned among the surrounding mob! Numbers of arms, legs, and skulls have been broken by the missive weapons designed as destruction to the sufferer in the string. It is dangerous in some places to pass the streets on Shrove Tuesday; 'tis risking life and limbs to appear abroad that day. It was first introduced by way of contempt to the French, and to exasperate the minds of the people against that nation. 'Tis a low, mean expression of our rage, even in time of war."
Knowlson, T Sharper, The Origins of Popular
Superstitions and Customs, T
Werner Laurie Ltd, London, 1910 Shrove
Tuesday
Olney's
famous Pancake Day race
In
England perhaps the best known one continuing commemoration of Shrovetide is
the Pancake Day Race at Olney
in Buckinghamshire which has been held for more than 550 years.
It
all
started in
1445 when
an
unknown
woman cooking pancakes heard the shriving bell summoning her to confession.
Alarmed, she
ran to church wearing her apron and still holding her frying pan, and no
doubt drew the good-natured ridicule of fellow parishioners. Thus,
unbeknown to her,
started a tradition that has lasted
all this time.
Nottinghamshire, UK
The ‘Fritters Bell’ was rung at 11 am on
Shrove Tuesday, until 1890 or 1892, to signal a half day school holiday.
Ghent,
FE and JW, ‘Memories of a Villager’, Balderton, 1960 Source
Shrovetide, Denmark
In old days this was a period of fasting, now marked by a carnival air and fun and games. Parents are awakened by the children waving specially decorated birch rods. The youngsters later dress in a variety of disguises and go singing from door to door with their collecting cups into which adults may drop a coin or two.
Poland: Auction of girls
Men bought their sweethearts back during the
traditional auction sale of girls on Shrove Tuesday.
A young man would bargain for his sweetheart. She was
taken to the byre, placed in a manger full of hay, and a careful physical
examination was given, including her teeth. The successful bidder was
rewarded at Easter with a gift of exquisitely decorated coloured eggs, up
to 100, in a hand-embroidered hankie.
Newall, Venetia, An Egg at
Easter: A Folklore Study, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1971
Shrove
Tuesday weather prognostication
"Some say, thunder on Shrove Tuesday foretelleth
wind, store of fruit, and plenty. Others affirm that so much as the sun
shineth on that day, the like will shine every day in Lent."
William
Hone, The
Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, Vol., 1, William Tegg and
Co., London, 1878
Carnival: removal from flesh
The period from Epiphany (January
6), until Shrove
Tuesday (Pancake Day, or Pancake Tuesday; Mardi Gras in French) is called Carnival. In Roman Catholic
countries it is a period for amusement and revelry, hence the fairground
meaning of the word. Thus, the famous 'carnival' celebrations of the
Christian world (such as at New Orleans, USA, Bagolino, Italy and Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil) take place at the end of the period when all foods
may be eaten, and at the beginning of the period of fasting, although the
weeks before Shrove Tuesday are in fact the period of carnival, or
"removal from meat".
“The season immediately
preceding Lent, ending on Shrove Tuesday and a period in many Roman
Catholic countries devoted to amusement.; hence revelry, riotous
amusement, From the Lat. caro, carnis flesh; levare, to
remove; signifying the abstinence from meat during Lent. The earlier word carnilevamen was altered in Italian
to carnevale, as though
connected with vale, farewell –
farewell to flesh."
Ivor
H Evans, Brewer's
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988
More on worldwide carnival
celebrations in the Book of Days, permanently placed at February 24
Imitation
Roman festival, Paris
“At Paris, a fat ox, crowned with a fillet, used to be
paraded through the streets. It was accompanied by mock priests and a band
of tin instruments in imitation of a Roman sacrificial procession."
Evans; ibid
Lent crocking, England
Boys
threw rubbish and crockery at doors. In Dorsetshire and Wiltshire this
was called Lent crocking. The
boys collected broken crockery all year for the day. Their song:
A-shrovin, a-shrovin,
I be come a shrovin;
A piece of bread, a piece of cheese,
A bit of your fat bacon,
Or a dish of dough-nuts,
All of your own makin!
A-shrovin, a-shrovin,
I be come a-shrovin,
Nice meat in a pie,
My mouth is very dry!
I wish a wuz zoo well-a-wet
I'de zing the louder for a nut!
If no food was given, crockery was thrown at the door.
Evans; ibid
Pancake bells and football
At Hoddeston, Hertfordshire, England, a bell, used in olden times to announce the time to put out, and light, all fire and candle light, was rung on Shrove Tuesday morning at 4am. People could make and eat pancakes until the bell was rung again at 8pm. This bell was, appropriately, known as the ‘Pancake Bell’.
At Kingston-upon-Thames, Twickenham, Bushy and Hampton-wick, all near London, this day was known popularly as ‘Football Day’, on which a football was carried from door to door and money begged. At noon, the ball was kicked by all and sundry, all the shop and house windows on the street previously having been boarded up against breakage. Even ‘respectable’ people became involved with the fun and games. After about four hours, with several balls and several concurrent games, everyone repaired to the pubs. The council of Kingston tried to ban it, but the courts overruled them.
Threshing the hen
At Shrovetide to shroving, go thresh the fat hen,
If blindfold can kill her, then givew it thy men.
Maids, fritters and pancakes inough see you make,
Let slut have one pancake, for company sake.
Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, 1620
This was another popular pastime in Olde England that chickens didn’t look forward to. A hen was put on a man's back, everyone else was blindfolded with maids' aprons and the man had horse bells hung on him. They had to hit the hen with boughs. After this the hen was eaten with bacon, pancakes and fritters.
Any woman known to lie in bed too long, or be slack in any way, had the first pancake presented to her. It was customary that no one would eat it, so it was given to the dog.
Feasts were always accompanied by exercise.
Throwing at cocks
In some places it was common practice to put a cock in an earthenware vessel made for the purpose, with holes for it to stick its head and tail out, and strung up about 4 metres above street; people would throw stones till it broke, and the winner got the chook. At North Walsham, Norfolk, about 1760, some wags got the head and tail of a dead cock, and put them with an owl in the vessel. The owl flew away.
Cockfighting, which was the regular Shrovetide activity, was prohibited as early as the reign of Edward III. Obviously it did not die out.
Russia, Shrovetide
Simple people thought that the dead would come to life, or at least be easier to communicate with. They took eggs to cemeteries, often fried, and broke them on graves and flung them over shoulders, because a ghost would never speak to one face-to-face.
East Riding, Yorkshire: Throw Egg
Day
Egg rolling. Celebrated on Shrove Tuesday. It was believed that young men who did not successfully roll eggs down hill on either Shrove Tuesdayor Easter monday would be ill at harvest-time.
When
is Easter?
Easter
is on a different date each year. When is it this year? The answer can be
found in the following:
"Easter
Day is always the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or
next after the 21st day of March; and if the full moon happens upon a
Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after." The full moon that is first
after the equinox (March 21) this year, is Thursday, April 17. The following
Sunday, which will be Easter, is April 20.
More quotes
Be merry, be merry ...
'Tis merry in hall, when beards wag all
And welcome merry Shrovetide.
Shakespeare, Henry IV
Pancakes are eat
by greedy gut,
And Hob and Madge run for the slut.
Poor Robin's Almanac, 1677
A-shrovin', a-shrovin',
I be come a-shrovin',
a piece of bread, a piece of cheese,
A bit of your fat bacaon,
Or a dish of dough-nuts,
All of your own makin'!
Traditional rhyme, Wiltshire, UK; Source: Whitlock, Ralph, A
Calendar of Country Customs
A-shrovin', a-shrovin',
Nice meat in a pie,
my mouth is very dry.
Traditional rhyme, Wiltshire, UK; Source: Whitlock,
ibid
Dame, is your pan hot?
Lard and corn is dear;
I've come a-shovin',
Tis but once a year.
So up to the flitch
and cut a gurt stitch;
If your hens don't lay,
I'll steal your cock away
Afore next Shrove Tuesday.
Traditional rhyme, Warminster, UK; Source: Whitlock,
ibid
Tippety-Tippety-tin;
Give me a pancake and I'll come in.
Tippety-tippety-toe,
Give me a pancake and then I'll go.
Traditional rhyme, West Somerset, UK; Source: Whitlock,
ibid
Nicky, nicky, nan,
Give me a pancake and then I'll be gone.
But if you give me none,
I'll throw a great stone
And down your door shall come.
Traditional rhyme, Cornwall, UK; Source: Whitlock,
ibid
Who wants a pancake,
Sweet and piping hot?
Good little Grace looks up and says,
"I'll take the one on top."
Who else wants a pancake,
Fresh off the griddle?
Terrible Teresa smiles and says,
"I'll take the one in the middle."
Shel Silverstein
Mix a pancake,
Stir a pancake,
Pop it in the pan.
Fry the pancake,
Toss the pancake,
Catch it if you can.
Christina Rossetti
|
|
Carnival
"The
season immediately preceding Lent, ending on Shrove Tuesday and a period in
many Roman Catholic countries devoted to amusement.; hence revelry, riotous
amusement, From the Lat. caro, carnis
flesh; levare, to remove;
signifying the abstinence from meat during Lent. The earlier word carnilevamen
was altered in Italian to carnevale,
as though connected with vale,
farewell - farewell to flesh."
Ivor
H Evans, Brewer's
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988 |
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Jedburgh
Hand Ba' Game,
Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, Fasteneen (Shrove Tuesday)
“The Jedburgh Hand Ba' Game is started
with the throwing of the ball into the crowd from the Mercat Cross. It is a
contest between the Guppies and the Downs, that is between those born north or
south of an east-west line through the cross: South is Up and North is Don.
Guppies score, or hail, by throwing the ball over the castle wall; Downs by
rolling the ball across the Skiprunning Burn. Another way of scoring, though
this may be apocryphal, is by cutting the stitching of the ball while it is
held ! under water in the River Jed, the Guppies having one stretch, the Downs
another. The winners are the side with the most hails scored, and up to
fifteen balls have been fought over in the course of a day.
“The shops of the town are boarded up
for the games, which also used to take place on Candlemas Day, though these
have now been abandoned, save for the token throwing of a ball from the Mercat
Cross.
“Any contest in this part of the border country has its
legends, and one is that the ba' game used to be played here with the severed
heads of English raiders. In 1704, it had become so violent that the burgh
elders put a stop to the kicking of footballs in the streets. The ba' game
developed with much smaller balls, made of leather and stuffed with straw and
decorated with ribbons. An attempt to stop this new game was made, but overruled
in 1848.”
Source
Fasnet, Carnival in Swabia, Germany
“Even in a country which celebrates Carnival as intensely as Germany, the Swabian Carnival season stands out, by virtue of its colourful imagery and bizarre local customs. The celebrations also spill over the border and take over parts of Switzerland.
“The pagan origins of these uniquely vibrant celebrations are unusually close to the surface. Merrymakers dressed as witches and ghosts, 'wise fools', demons and warlocks caper around and get up to all kinds of crazy antics, donning ancient wooden masks passed down from generation to generation, often for hundreds of year.
“Documented since the early 13th century, the German-speaking carnival involved noisy costume parades, masked balls and a heavy dose of political satire, delivered in the form of speeches, plays and performances of various kinds. All these elements form part of the modern Fasnacht celebrations. Historical customs such as the handing of the keys of the city to a council of fools, and the 'Frauenrecht' on Thursday before Lent, when women were allowed to rule, still attest to the suspension of social customs and conventions that took place, and still takes place, during carnival. As the Germans say, 'Wer an Karneval nicht jeck ist, der ist es das ganze Jahr' ('whoever is not a fool on carnival, is a fool for the rest of the
year') ...” Source
