The Survival of Shriving

Carnivals, pancakes and more seasonal cruelty to animals

The Fight Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Bruegel the Elder 1559

This is a bit of a ramble on Shrove Tuesday and Lent, because I’m rather overwhelmed. If you read books about the liturgical calendar, feast days, festivals and local traditions, about a third of it relates to this time of year and the beginning of Lent. But let’s just start with Shrove Tuesday:

Shriving

In Europe, Shrove Tuesday was a time of shriving, which means making confession and seeking penance for your sins. This practice was dropped by Protestants in the Sixteenth century, although Luther believed it had some value. Many Christians will tell you that they value having a Christian friend who can hold them to account, which is not so very different from shriving.

There are dozens of local variants on the pancake traditions I could write about here, although you can read them for yourself in The English Year by Steve Roud. So I’m not going to. Suffice to say this: pancakes are a thing and have been for centuries.

There is a less savoury tradition called ‘Cock Throwing’, which is not quite as the name suggests. It sounds like wanging a winged welly. It is, in fact, throwing cudgels at a cock from a distance (a penny throw) and the one who despatches the cock wins it.

Many an English Christian festival involves food and animal cruelty, and Shrove Tuesday is no different. But Lent is coming, so say goodbye (vale) to meat (carne) at your Shorve Tuesday Carnival (Carne-vale).

Lent

Lent then begins on Ash Wednesday. It lasts for 40 days taking us to Easter (not including Sundays). This period symbolizes the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness which in itself symbolises the Israelites’ 40 years in the desert, having left Egypt before entering the promised land.

This was a journey that does not take 40 years, even for hundreds of thousands of people moving very slowly. But when presented with the opportunity to enter the promised land, the Israelites were terrified of what lay within. And they grumbled. And so God said:

“Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years,suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.” (Numbers 14:30-34)

It would be easy to spend the period of Lent examining ourselves, when we would do well to remember the promises of God. When we read the stories of the Exodus, the tales of Israel’s disbelief, ingratitude and faith seem astonishing. How worried can you be given that bread turns up overnight every night without fail?

Yet our own lives display a total inability to trust in God’s provision, even when we pray, daily, give us each day our daily bread. And we receive not only bread but jam, peanut butter and Bovril.

The Days are Getting Longer

The word ‘Lent’ isn’t actually related to abstinence, penance or self-examination. It comes from the Old English word ‘lencten’ referring to the lengthening of the days as Spring approaches. Candlemas was traditionally the time of year when you should be able to complete a working day without the need for candles. The days really are getting longer during Lent.

But here’s something that I stumbled across that I really want to share. It is well worth 6 minutes of your time as we stand on the threshold of a new period in the litugical calendar. Listen to this fascinating commentary about a painting by one of my favourites: Pieter Bruegel the Elder. This painting, containing over 200 characters, is called The Fight Between Carnival and Lent: