Today is Shrove Tuesday, which in Christian cultures falls the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of the 40 days of Lent. We’re not Christians in our household, but we do like an excuse to have pancakes, and so Shrove Tuesday is known as pancake day in our household (and I’m sure many others). Pancakes have been traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday as a way to use up foods that households wouldn’t eat during lent.
We normally make pancakes our main meal on Pancake day, having a mixture of savoury and sweet toppings. Savoury toppings are usually cooked meat or cheese, and for sweet toppings, usually one or more of maple syrup, honey, lemon juice, sugar and Nutella. We make our pancakes from scratch.
This year, the start of Lent broadly coalesces with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. During Ramadan, Muslims tend to fast during daylight hours, with the first meal after sunset typically called Iftar. However, whilst Easter (in the Gregorian calendar) is on the 5th April, Eid al-Fitr, the festival at the end of Ramadan, is likely to fall on or around the 20th March. The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, as opposed to solar Gregorian calendar, and so the exact date of Eid al-Fitr varies. Depending on local customs, it may start on the night of the first sighting of the crescent moon in Saudi Arabia, or the following day.
Finally, writing a blog post about Pancake Day is an opportunity to share the above video clip from the TV series Maid Marian and her Merry Men. If you’re not familiar with the show, it was written by Tony Robinson (better known as Baldrick in Blackadder and, more recently, the presenter of Time Team on Channel 4), and the song is performed by Danny John-Jules, better known as the Cat in Red Dwarf. Whilst the music in the series was very much of its time, it holds up well. It’s a re-telling of the Robin Hood story, except the Merry Men are led by Maid Marian, with Robin Hood portrayed as being something of wet blanket.