Exactly what I came to say! (Is this my sister?? Only kidding.)
Same heritage, Pennsylvania Slovak.
My grandma always made donuts on donut day. They were simple but wonderful. Traditional, cake-like fried donuts that we would sprinkle with powdered sugar. Grandma had a donut cutter which is similar to a cookie cutter but deeper with a built in ring to cut the hole. Very important kitchen tool in upstate Pennsylvania.
Being at grandmas on Donut Day was a great thing! I’m not religious and don’t observe lent, but I did easily partake in the pre-lent tradition of fresh donuts. It would have been sacrilegious not to. Everyone in town seemed to celebrate donut day.
I have never heard of the pancake tradition, other than the potato pancakes the nuns from the churches in Grandmas town made and sold for various fundraisers. Grandma made them pretty frequently and my mom still does.
before lent we have one week where you can eat what you want what ever day you want it.
the next week meat products are out.
then you have the last week before lent when you go dairy crazy the week hello again mentions above. that week ends on sunday with a big blini blowout. some churches will have big blini dinners.
lent begins at sundown with the forgiveness day vespers. some church will tack it onto the end of liturgy, some will wait until around sundown (after the blini dinner). no more meat or dairy (and fish except for certain days) until pascha.
I’m an atheist Jew who is unclear on exactly what Shrove Tuesday is supposed to celebrate, but here in Michigan, and in Chicago, where I used to live, Packzi Day is a pretty big deal. I’d never even heard of the things until I moved to the Midwest, but everyone apparently needs to eat a pazcki on Packzi Day. I have found the good will deep in my soul to join in on this holiday. Oh, the pain and horror of eating a packzi. The things we do to fit into the local culture.
Whether it’s called Mardi Gras or Carnival or Shrove Tuesday, the concept is the same: the season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. During the 40 Days of Lent, Christians were expected to fast or, at the very least, to pledge to give up something they enjoyed.
Hence, the Tuesday before Lent, one (over)indulges in food, drink, partying, whatever it was one was planning to give up for the next 40 days.
Today, of course, Mardi Gras has become a nearly secular holiday, and people of all faiths (or none) will (over)indulge on Tuesday without having the slightest intention of giving up anything later.
I have never understood the appeal of a 200000000000 calorie laden diabetic inducing coma donut.
Packzi’s haven’t always been SO HUGE. I would say in the last 15 years the marketing of them has taken off. No one I knew growing up in the burbs ever heard of them. If we aren’t careful, Packzi’s are going to take over the world.
That too; I just didn’t mention them because the OP was asking about pancakes. If it’s a good day to eat pancakes, and it’s a good day to eat doughnuts, then it’s an even better day to eat both.
And I’m aware that Masilenitsa started off pagan, but it’s been co-opted into serving as the pre-Lent festival as well. Heck, most Christian holidays have pagan roots.
A YOUNG Catholic, I see. Part of the “I gave up chocolate for Lent” generation. That’s supposed to be “penance?” That’s “self sacrifice?” Well, me boyo, you don’t know the first thing about the mortification of the flesh, you don’t. Back in my day we had FLAGELLANTS, fer Christ’s sake. They gladly whipped themselves and each other because they were offering up their pain for the greater glory of God, they did.
Well, that’s what they said, though I don’t know how ball gags and latex body suits fit in, theologically.
Where I grew up, there were like two Catholics in town, so my exposure to Catholic holidays was limited to Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day, and I reckon those just because they’re an excuse to drink to excess.
Raised Catholic in the 1960s/1970s in Pennsylvania, where Catholics aren’t at all a rarity, and I’d never heard of Pancake Tuesday until about 5 years ago. We didn’t even call it “Shrove Tuesday” or “Mardi Gras”, I heard those terms in books when I was a teenager.
In my area it is called FastNaught Day, but most people will eat any kind of donut rather than the traditional Fastnaught (which I find to be less enjoyable.)
Pancake Day is probably the thing I miss most about England, believe it or not. Pancakes in America are awful - big fat doughy things.
It never occurred to me that there was any other kind of pancake other than crepe-style ones until I got here, and I still don’t understand why there is.
