PANCAKE DAY
It’s time for pancakes again! Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday is on March 4, 2025. Light and airy, sweet and savoury, raising funds for a worthy cause, enjoyed with friends in the community; I’m looking forward to them!
The first time I had fluffy, puffy pancakes was on board the Empress of England. On board ship, newly married and emigrating from England, we were excited to experience a “real Canadian” dish.
The waiter served a stack of buckwheat pancakes, maple syrup dribbling over and down the sides. It was something to “write home about”.
We had eaten pancakes before, of course, but not like these.
Once a year, when I was growing up, Mum would say, “It’s Shrove Tuesday today. I’m making pancakes.”
Mum’s pancakes were flat, flat as a pancake you might say; not the puffy, North American kind. This year, on Shrove Tuesday, I’m going to make flat pancakes the way my Mum used to
make them, squeeze lemon juice on them, sprinkle them with demarara sugar, roll them up and add a lemon slice. Delicious!
We’ll eat pancakes again in July, for Canada’s Calgary Stampede Pancake Breakfast. It’s a Longview tradition to have a Pancake Breakfast at Stampede time because it coincides with Longview’s Little New York Daze. These fluffy pancakes will be served with sausages, strawberries, whipped cream and Aunt Jemima’s Syrup. That’s delicious, too!
But, Shrove Tuesday has a much longer history than the Calgary Stampede.
The first mention of Shrove Tuesday was around 1,000 AD in Aelfric of Eynsham’s Ecclesiastical Institutes.
I imagine children in the Middle Ages asked their mothers, “Why are we making pancakes?”
“Because it’s Shrove Tuesday . We must use up all the sugar, eggs milk and butter before Lent.”
“What is Lent?”
“It’s a time when we do without rich food?”
“Why?”
“To remember that we sin. We tell God we are sorry and we try not to do it again.”
And so the whole community demonstrated with pancakes what we say to each other every day: “Sorry!”, “My bad!”, “I blew it!”, “I’m only human!”
We sin, it’s true, but I hate that word sin. It’s rarely used outside the church and it has nasty connotations for me. It spells “failure”, “bad”, “hopeless.”
Since I don’t like the word sin, I decided to find its root and discover its origin. Apparently, it goes way, way back into history, when first writing took place. Genesis was written in Hebrew, probably around 500 BC by Moses, but was an oral tradition long before that, about 5,000 BC. Since Sumerian writing was scratched on tablets 3,500 BC, that makes the word sin one of the oldest in humanity.
So, what did the word sin mean, way back then? It meant “not reaching the goal”. I don’t always reach my goals. My grandson doesn’t either. He tries shoots over and over again to get a basketball in the hoop. Often he gets it in, but not always. He doesn’t give up when he misses the goal, and he is certainly not a failure, bad or hopeless. He is patient with himself and tries again. He shoots up close, under the basket, and then a few paces back, from one side and then the other; even with his back to the basket.
I have goals, too. I have good things that I aim for and sometimes I attain them. At other times I miss; but I still have a goal.
Sinning is “missing the goal”, and that is forgivable. Not having the goal is unforgiveable. If my grandson had no goal, he would never reach it. As it is, he usually gets the ball through the rim and into the net.
The question is: “What is the goal?”
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and… Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Well I try, but there are times when I don’t even hit the backboard. And that’s forgivable. I have a goal and I will keep shooting for the net.
I’ll be putting money in the jar on March 4th, 5 – 7 p.m. when the Longview Youth Group serve pancakes in the Longview Village Hall. Their goal is to raise $300 towards activities for our youngsters. Great goals towards loving our neighbours!
by Andrea Kidd
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