February 10, 2016
Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday. Yes many of my dear readers would have had a pancake or two to celebrate . It is exactly 47 days before Easter Sunday. It is considered a movable feast. Next year for those who are curious it will fall on February 27. It takes its name from the word “shrive”, meaning to confess and seek absolution. This moveable festival is determined by Easter.
It is a common custom to eat pancakes a repast. Canada at least, the big indulgence is in the form of syrup poured on pancakes. Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland the day is also known as “Pancake Day” OFF we went to church, as a child, with my parents, where the basement was filled with smoke, as sausages were sacrificed, as the men of the churches made the meal of pancakes using cookie sheets on the burners, as the pan to mass produce them.
Pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up foods such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. The liturgical fasting emphasized eating plainer food and refraining from food that would give pleasure: in many cultures, this means no meat, dairy products, or eggs. Now in the modern times, many people just eat the pancakes and have no idea why they are, but they enjoy them. Many posts on social media exclaiming just combinations of things were placed in the batter.
Lent is when traditionally my mother gives up her favorite food, chocolate. (One year for Christmas she received 12 boxes of it that is well know her love of the stuff is. What she wanted was gloves. ) My mother reminded moi it is also and I have had friends take on additional exertions and efforts, for the 40 days. Given, that whine and chocolate & caffeine have moved into necessities, I would venture to say we should give up plastics. Now that would be a hardship.
Would that include purchasing, it for 40 days or going without touching it? Our world is littered with it. Due to their relatively low cost, ease of manufacture, versatility, and imperviousness to water. Plastics are used in an enormous and expanding range of products, from paper clips to spaceships. They have already displaced many traditional materials, such as wood and glass. Cars are now 20% plastic as are furniture, and where would be without our nylons? I think it would be complicated and easier said, than done. The point is to be present, and plastics are. Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper. Everything can have drama if it’s done right. Even a pancake.
Julia Child & Moi