Shrove Tuesday.

With our Wedding Anniversary 4 days earlier and our son’s birthday the day before, Valentines Day is not big in our household. However, although I am not a great Pancake eater either, I was fancying some Pancakes the other day, so I took my wife to the local “Pancake Parlour” on Valentines day. Yeah I know. A romantic I am not!

Anyway on the table was a blurb advertising Shrove Tuesday next week. I will quote:

“What is Shrove Tuesday? The word Shrove comes from the custom of being” shriven” where you present yourself to a priest for confession, penance and absolution.

Certain foods are given up for the duration of Lent such as eggs, milk, and rich buttery dishes.

On Shrove Tuesday, families ate up all the rich foods left in their pantries.

One way they used up the eggs, milk and fats in the house was to add flour to make pancakes.

In England, the popularity of pancakes caused Shrove Tuesday to be called pancake Day!”

This was followed by an add for them and on the other side was this message, which I again quote:

“A special Event for The People Of Melbourne.

Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day.

Tuesday 20 February, 2007

The Annual Pancake Tossing Race.

Each year, the city of Melbourne stops for this famous race. Watch the local ladies toss pancakes down the Bourke Street Mall. Race starts at 11.55 am.”

Now I am not a Catholic so I don’t observe Lent anyway, but I couldn’t help thinking that this is typical of the average Aussie’s reaction to a religious Festival. That is to forget the spiritual aspect of the event all together and just focus on the party. Forget the reason for the Party, just make the party the main thing.

The original reason for Shrove Tuesday was simply to use up, without wasting, what you already had in the house and to prepare and get yourself ready for the spiritual implications of the event you were celebrating. Nowadays the religious significance is mostly lost and the party becomes the main thing and something to spend up on, rather than to use up what was already in the house.

What about you? And not just on Shrove Tuesday either. Whether it be for Christmas, Easter or simply Church every Sunday? Have you become lost in the event, but lost the reason and religious significance of the event? Has it just become an occasion to meet with old friends, rather than with God?

Over to you: Walter