what I learned today, is that it's pancake day.
I learned this from lauren, our wee irish lass from Omagh who lived with us last july when one of my daughters participated in the ulster project.
from lauren's conversation with my daughter last night:
mm, pancake day, well, it's a day where everyone makes pancakes . . . oh, God, I can't believe you don't have it. that's so sad.
my daughter tells me about it, and I am compelled this morning to do a little googling to flesh out the story a bit. here's the scoop.
it's actually shrove tuesday today, the day before ash wednesday. for the catholic faith, ash wednesday is the beginning of lent, the season of fasting and preparation for the easter season.
and what catholic communities in many countries do on the day before lent begins is to eat pancakes, those treats made from sugar, flour, fat, eggs, all rich ingredients that are likely to be restricted during the lenten season.
wikipedia tells us that the word shrove is the past tense of the english verb shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of confession and doing penance, thus "shrovetide" is the name for the week leading up to the beginning of lent.
methinks we might be having pancakes for dinner tonight at our house, in honor of our friends across the pond.
what I also discover is that the irish aren't the only ones who traditionally eat pancakes today: canadians, the english, australians, new zealanders, phillipinos and germans also observe this event.
all in all, pancake tuesday sounds like something you might do before a good wednesday ride.
since tomorrow shows a predicted high of 54 degrees and only a 20 percent chance of precipitation, I think I'll experiment with pancakes as a form of carbo-loading.
grin.
happy pancake day to you all!
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