Today is Shrove Tuesday, ‘Mardi Gras’ in French (‘fat Tuesday’, when all the fat was used up before the forty days of Lent.) Apparently it’s also Safer Internet Day, though I must confess I don’t know how I can connect these two facts! In many countries, Shrove Tuesday is celebrated by eating pancakes, and Garry will indeed be making pancakes at our house tonight (he’s much better than I am at tossing them and his pancake culinary skills far exceed mine!) I’m a lemon pancake fan (not entirely sure what that says about me, possibly a reflection of my personality…), but we’ll also be serving golden syrup and bananas and orange juice on the pancakes.
The expression ‘Shrove Tuesday’ comes from the old word ‘to shrive’, which means to absolve and is connected to the idea of repentance. Christians traditionally ‘make a special point of self-examination, of considering what wrongs they need to repent, and what amendments of life or areas of spiritual growth they especially need to ask God’s help in dealing with’ on this occasion. The period of Lent (which starts tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, and ends at Easter) is traditionally a time for ‘giving up’ something in order to focus on God (alcohol and chocolate are frequently ‘given up’ at this time, though in line with the Safer Internet Day, maybe we could also look at giving up some of our online passions.) Self-discipline and self-sacrifice are, of course, not to be restricted to one forty-day period (excluding Sundays!), but sometimes having an external focus can be helpful to people.
Eating pancakes to use up the fat and eggs we have before the period of Lent may well not apply to everyone today. But it’s always good to pause and to ask God to examine our hearts as well as to pray for those who are less fortunate than we are and for whom, perhaps, a pancake would be a feast of a meal on any occasion.