The MEN’S CLUB is sponsoring our annual All Saints Pancake Supper

DONATION: $Tbd (single) or $Tbd (up to five people)

The day before Ash Wednesday also known as Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day, or Mardi Gras; where we celebrate the last day before the beginning of Lent. For most people if not all, SHROVE TUESDAY/Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday is synonymous with pancakes and extravagant carnivals or parades.

Like many Christian feast, SHROVE TUESDAY has a pagan origin, a Roman feast of nature or land called the Calends of March. During this feast, prohibitions were transgressed and fancy dress or costumes were permitted, people danced: it was a joyful or exuberating moment.

Although it is difficult to give precise origin, Fat Tuesday existed in the XV century Europe. The name “SHROVE TUESDAY” is derived from the word “shrive,” which means to confess and receive absolution. The name denotes a period of cleansing, wherein a person brings their lusts ad appetites under subjection through abstention and self-sacrifice. Mardi Gras in Italian is “Carnevale” which is from the two Latin words carne = flesh and avale = take out (literally meaning to take the meat out or without meat). This refers to the skinny period (period of fasting) to follow.

To prepare for Lent, Christians were invited to eat all their meat, eggs, and fat. To keep such food from being wasted, many families would have big feasts on SHROVE TUESDAY to consume those items that would inevitably become spoiled over the next 40 days. The English tradition of eating pancakes on SHROVE TUESDAY came about as a way to use as much milk, fats, and eggs as possible before Ash Wednesday.  Also, fat was used to make pancakes, thus giving birth to the custom of eating pancakes.