Pandemic Pancake Party

We're into Lent. "Living on Borrowed Time" as Dad always joked. I recently came across a poem relating to this time of year

Knick a knock upon the block;
Flour and lard is very dear,
Please we come a shroving here,
Your pan's hot and my pan's cold,
Hunger makes us shrovers bold;
Please to give poor shrovers something here.

It comes from Hampshire [particularly around Basingstoke] where there was a custom for "Shrovers" - rather like carol singers, or trick-or-treaters, children would go from house to house asking for pancakes or money. I learned that Shrovetide is technically the three days before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday 

Ash Wednesday - the priest marks the foreheads of the faithful with the sign of the cross, in ashes [made by burning last years Palm Crosses]

Shrove Tuesday - people go to be shriven of cleansed of their sins. Also known as Pancake Day, Mardi Gras ['fat Tuesday'] or Carnival [Carne Vale- goodbye meat]

Collop Monday - [a 'collop' was a slice of bacon with a fried egg on top] - another opportunity to eat up rich foods before the simple diet of Lent.

Pork Sunday - [also called Quinquagesima = 50 days to Easter

Fasting then feasting seems to have been much more common years ago. I wonder if that is why people latch onto ideas like Stoptober, and Dry January [and Veganuary] 

Here's Little Grey Rabbit's Pancake Day, illustrated by the Suffolk artist Margaret Tempest.

Bob and I have been hosting an annual pancake party every Shrove Tuesday since 1978 - but this year on Zoom!