I grew up in Kentucky in the fifties and sixties (well forties too but I was too young to remember) and only remember emulating the Cajuns and having Creole food on Shrove Tuesday and having a big feast before the beginning of Lent. Now, having lived in Australia since 1971, I’ve assumed the tradition of eating pancakes with lemon and sugar for ‘Pancake Tuesday’. It’s the only time I eat pancakes at all and certainly without maple syrup. The Brits also have the tradition of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.
Do any of you Americans have pancakes on Shrove Tuesday?
My Evangelical Lutheran parish does it. It’s a symbolic using up of the sugar, eggs, and grease in the house before Lent.
ETA: It’s also a chance to eat sausage and pancakes without cleaning up after my wife, who cannot prepare any “breakfast” food without making a mess for those who come after. Including cold cereal because we find her bowls all over the house with dried casein paint on the bottom.
It’s the tradition in my family of Irish and Germans living in an area of western PA that’s mostly Slavic. I don’t know which of those heritages it comes from.
Apparently, it’s also the tradition in Russia, since one of the Russian grad students has a pancake party every year for Maslenitsa (the Russian equivalent of Shrove Tuesday).
I’m probably over-simplifying wildly, but I’d guess that after a century of persecuting catholics, then persecuting protestants, then catholics again, and finally ending up with Cromwell persecuting everyone, we more or less decided that large numbers of people taking to the streets to celebrate a minor religious holiday was just asking for trouble.
In the Detroit area, Fat Tuesday is when we eat Packzi (pronounced punchki). They are super-fat donuts that use up all remaining lard and sugar. There was a sizable Polish settlement in the middle of Detroit (Hamtramck) and brought this tradition with them. It quickly caught on with their neighbors.
Looking at wikipedia, several mid-western cities eat packzi instead of pancakes, including Chicago.
I grew up Catholic and never heard of this (or the doughnut thing), although we observed Lent. When we lived in England there was “Pancake Day” and the children at school ate pancakes for lunch, but there didn’t seem to be any religiosity assigned to it.
My question then is why would you want to use up all the sugar, eggs and grease before Lent? Are pancakes forbidden during Lent?
Yup, Chicagoan here who ignores Shrove Tuesday but looooooves “Paczki Day.” The bakery division at my work place offers paczki, King Cakes, and other suitable goodies around that day.
Originally, Lent was a time of fasting, in memory of the time Christ spent wandering the desert being tempted by Satan. Exact rituals varied, but no meat or animal products and only one meal a day were common themes. Generally, anything that spoke of culinary luxury was frowned upon during the 40-day period leading up to Easter - hence, no butter, eggs, etc.
The fasting tradition has been largely dropped by mainstream Christianity, but many people will give up a particular luxury such as chocolate for Lent, and some people will still go so far as to abstain from eating meat. It depends on how traditional one’s parish is, and I think is still more common elsewhere than the USA and Canada.
Anecdata: There is a Filipino lady in my office who gives up meat for Lent - our friday lunches always feature a veggie/cheese pizza for her.
Yes, Fasnacht Day. The donut palaces’ marquees all remind us that Fasnacht Day is quickly coming, and that we should get our orders in. Many workplaces and churches offer donuts on that day, sometimes to raise money by selling them. Since I’m Jewish, it doesn’t make much difference, but I’m happy to kick in for a donut.
I’m very curious about the lemon and sugar part. When I read that, I kind of envisioned mixing lemon juice with confectioners’ sugar, making a glaze. But maybe that’s not it at all. How DO you apply lemon and sugar to pancakes? Or is it part of the batter?
Just sprinkle the sugar on, give it a splash of lemon juice, and eat. These are crêpe-type pancakes, you realise, not the kind more common in America. Here’s a recipe.
Actually, Maslenitsa as a holiday precedes Christianity in Russia, having its origins in pagan ceremonies calling back the sun in the depths of winter. The blini and other round foods which are eaten, represent the sun. Unlike Shrove Tuesday it is a week long holiday that ends on the first day of Lent. Note that because the Eastern Orthodox Chruch does not calculate Easter the same way, it does not normally fall on the day designated Shrove Tuesday in the western Christian demoninations.