From the Chaplain

On Tuesday we celebrated Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day.  It is a Christian event celebrated in many countries.  It falls on the Tuesday before the beginning of Lent.

Shrove comes from the old word ‘shriving’, which means to listen to someone’s sins and forgive them. In Anglo-Saxon England, Christians would go to church on Shrove Tuesday to confess their sins and clean their soul. In other words, they would be ‘shriven’.

Traditionally during Lent, people would give up rich foods like eggs, cream, sugar and fats.  So the best way to use these all up was to make pancakes. 

Mokare 3 shared pancakes, berries, syrup and cream in Homeroom.  The Primary School leaders cooked a pikelet for every student in the Primary School.  This was 188 we had to make.  They then took them around to the classrooms and read a paragraph about the meaning behind Pancake Day.

The day after Shrove Tuesday is Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent (40 days before Easter, not including weekends). Here some people fast and repent, before the celebration of Easter.

Jesus fasted and prayed in the desert for 40 days before he died on the cross and that is why Lent is for 40 days.  Many Christians attend an Ash Wednesday service at their church. The priest makes a cross on people’s foreheads in ash and says, ‘Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.’ 

The dusting of ashes is mentioned in the Bible as a sign of mourning and repentance. The cross drawn on the forehead symbolises the cross that Jesus died on to cleanse the world of its sins. Many people keep the ashes on their forehead for the entire day. It is a sign that they are sinners and need God's forgiveness.

Mrs Naomi Cooper | Chaplain