Benedictus Deus

Shrovetide is the last few days before the start of Lent.  The name is derived from verb “to shrive” referring to being shriven of your sins at confession.  The Catholic Encyclopedia entry quotes the Ecclesiastical Institutes from about 1000 A.D. “In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him as he then my hear by his deeds what he is to do [in the way of penance].”  Nowadays Shrovetide is considered the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, but it may once have included the whole week before.  That might explain why in some regions the Thursday before Ash Wednesday was also a party day.

In any case, the most common festivities are celebrated on Shrove Tuesday (a.k.a Fat Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, Fastnacht (eve before the fast) Day).   When the Lenten fast was much more severe people had to use up all the eggs, dairy, and fats they couldn’t use during lent.  Pancakes and fastnachts are two popular ways to do that.   In England the custom grew of having pancake races.  Women would race to a finish line while flipping a pancake along the way.  They had to keep it intact, and flip it a certain number of times before finishing.  Other pancake related festivities were common as well, including eating them of course!

The main festivities would not start however until after the Shrove Bell would summon the people to confession.  After confession it would be party time. Games (including soccer), merriment, eating and drinking were the order of the day, not to mention a good bit of horseplay, particularly at schools and universities.  The day was a holiday too, so there was no work to be done!  Would to live in a Catholic country were you actually got important liturgical days off!

Of course there is always the danger of excess during these celebrations, but it seems that things never got quite so bad in England as they did in other countries.  In our own day that last vestiges of these Shrovetide observances (whether it is Srove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, or whatever) have descended into pure debauchery.  But it seems this has been a problem for a long time.  So much so that in 1747 Pope Benedict XIV encouraged a forty hours devotion from Quinquagesima Sunday through Tuesday to make reparation for the grave offenses to God that took place during these days.  I think it would be a good idea to offer at lease some prayers during this time for that purpose.

Our own Shrovetide observance will likely be pretty reserved.  Pancake supper  with (hopefully) multiple kinds of pancakes, homemade fastnachts, and fruit.  If the weather is nice I will take the kids outside and have a little pancake flipping contest.  The primary music will be the Polka Party Podcast with Gary Sredzienski (look it up on iTunes or the web, it’s well done and between music he talks about a lot of timely Polish customs, which of course are mostly Catholic customs).  And of course I will try to get to confession in there sometime.

More at the Fish Eaters Page.

An awesome Shrovetide site complete with pancake jokes!

Wiki.