Please join us for a Pre-Lenten celebration of the Mardi Gras!
Tuesday, February 17, 2015 5:30 - 8:30pm At Sts. Peter & Paul Church Courtyard Includes: Food, games, prizes, burning of the palms
Shrove Tuesday is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which is the first day of Lent. Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the ritual of shriving that Christians used to undergo in the past. In their shriving, a person confesses their sins and receive absolution for them. When a person receives absolution for their sins, they are forgiven for them and released from the guilt and pain that they have caused them.
Shrove Tuesday is a day of celebration as well as penitence. Lent is a time of abstinence, of giving things up. So Shrove Tuesday is the last chance to indulge youself, and to use up the foods that aren't allowed during Lent. In the old days there were many foods that observant Christians would not eat during Lent: foods such as meat and fish, fats, eggs, and milky foods. So that no food was wasted, families would have a feast on the shriving Tuesday and eat up all the foods that wouldn't last the forty days of Lent without spoilage.
The need to eat up the fats gave rise to the French name Mardi Gras; meaning fat Tuesday. Pancakes became associated with Shrove Tuesday as they were a dish that could use up all the eggs, fats and milk in the house with just the addition of flour.