...and for most people in Britain it's Pancake Day. I'm glad the tradition still flourishes. Pics in the press of children at a choir school running, fully robed, wth frying-pans in a Pancake Race. Advertisments reminding people to buy flour, sugar, lemons. And delicious pancakes on offer at various eateries, with syrup or with chocolate sauce or with ce cream.
The "Shrove" doesn't, of course, refer to pancakes, but to confessing our sins and being shriven: ie receiving absolution. And with Ash Wednesday Lent begins, the season of penance and prayer leading up to the great events of Holy Week and Easter...
The carnival tradition, Mardi Gras, celebrating and partying before Lent begins, still lingers: our British pancake day is a rather - well - British version of it.
I've often wondered - comments welcome - does the tradition of the clown-with-a-tear, the harlequin with a sad face, somehow echo the idea of the partying that ends with Ash Wednesday? Somehow the song "The Carnival is over" echoes the theme too...
Auntie marked Shrove Tuesday with sticky chocolate cake enjoyed with a young relative, then pancakes-and syrup at home very late.
I'm writing this after midnight, so now it's Lent.
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