Four weeks today marks Shrove Tuesday, and in preparation, I've been doing a bit of research and reflection on what Shrove Tuesday is, and why we celebrate with pancakes. The tradition dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, when Christians spent Lent in repentance and severe fasting. On the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the church bell would summon people to confession, where they would be ‘shriven’, or absolved from their sins, which gives us Shrove Tuesday. At home, they would then eat up their last eggs and fat, and making a pancake was the easiest way to do this. For the next 47 days, they pretty well starved themselves.
Apparently, Pancakes feature in cookery books as far back as 1439, and today’s pancake races are in remembrance of a panicked woman back in 1445 in Olney, Buckinghamshire. She was making pancakes when she heard the shriving bell calling her to confession. Afraid she’d be late, she ran to the church in a panic, still in her apron, and still holding the pan. As someone who spends her life running late, I feel a very deep sense of empathy for her!
I have actually been thinking about this woman a lot since I found out about her. Bring shriven was obviously so important to her that she was willing to drop everything she was doing to make sure she didn't miss out. She probably had quite mixed reactions from those that were already at church too! I also feel like running with a frying pan would have been a hindrance for her. Running is hard enough as it is, without carrying a heavy and hot pan! Would she have got to church quicker if she'd have dropped the pan in the kitchen somewhere first? I don't know. What I do know is that many of us run with metaphorical pans that we don't need to be carrying. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. - Romans 12:1-2 I wonder how many of us have been frying up hindrances and carrying the pan around afterwards? Bitterness with a pinch of envy? People pleasing topped with a need for acceptance? The Bible encourages us to throw off these hindrances and run towards Jesus. That sounds like a good plan to me. Beth
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