Crockham Hill February 2025 Newsletter - Flipbook - Page 29
Shrove Tuesday
Rev. Alison Cooper
Shrove Tuesday, the day that Christians prepare for the penitential period
of Lent, falls 47 days before Easter, that 8moveable feast9, on the day before
Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins. This year Shrove Tuesday is on 4th
March.
The word 8shrove9 comes from the old English verb 8to shrive9. It means to
give absolution for sins by confession and doing penance. Shrove Tuesday
was named after the custom of Christians to be 8shriven9 before the start
of Lent. It is a practice that has been noted since the Middle Ages.
Shrove Tuesday is also a day when the tradition of burning last years9 palms
takes place, usually the palm crosses that were distributed on Palm Sunday
the previous year. This provides the ashes for the ceremony of 8ashing9 at
church on the next day, Ash Wednesday.
For many people, this day is also known as Pancake Day. Traditionally,
people would use up their eggs and fat by making pancakes, to prepare for
the 8fasting9 of Lent, the period leading up to Easter. During Lent, people
would eat less and pray more, abstaining from rich foods and alcohol to
withdraw from the pleasures of life to focus more on God.
The marking of Shrove Tuesday is an international practice amongst
Christian people, known variously as Carnival Day or Mardi Gras (Fat
Tuesday!), a celebratory day when feasting takes place before the
abstinences of Lent.
Here, in Crockham Hill, we too have a Shrove Tuesday tradition, inviting the
whole village community to gather in good fellowship to enjoy a Hot Pot
supper in the village hall.
Thus, Shrove Tuesday has many dimensions, from celebration to
confession. These serve as signposts to the Lenten observance of selfexamination and sacrifice and offer a day to consider what those sacrifices
and good works may entail, in order to deepen one9s spiritual life and
relationship with God, whatever your definition of infinite goodness may
be.
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