Shrove Tuesday 2023
This year, Easter Sunday is on 9 April — eight days earlier than last year — with its position calculated based on the first full moon that follows the spring equinox in March.
Shrove Tuesday immediately precedes Ash Wednesday, which in turn heralds the start of Lent, the Christian season supposed to replicate the Biblical story of Jesus Christ’s withdrawal into the desert for 40 days.
As the last chance for a bit of indulgence before the 40 days of Lent, Christians would use up their leftover ingredients such as eggs, butter and milk, by turning them into cakes to be eaten on the day.
Over the years there have been various ways to celebrate Shrove Tuesday and English pancakes aren’t the only type to try. There are also French crepes, Indian dosas or Japanese souffle pancakes to consider.
In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Canada the day is also celebrated as Pancake Day. In other countries, Shrove Tuesday has different names.
In Germany, it’s called ‘Fastnacht’ (meaning ‘Eve of the Fast’) and in Iceland it’s called ‘Sprengidagur’ (meaning ‘Bursting Day’). In France and some other parts of the world, the festival is called ‘Mardi Gras’, from the French phrase meaning ‘Fat Tuesday’.
Yum! Yum! Yum! Binge today for we starve tomorrow.
Originally published at http://woaworld.blogspot.com.
