Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday
Shrove Tuesday is Tuesday 5th March!
What is Shrove Tuesday all about?
Shrove Tuesday is the day before Lent starts, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It's a day of penitence, to clean the soul, and a day of celebration as the last chance to feast before Lent begins.
Shrove Tuesday is sometimes called Pancake Day after the fried batter recipe traditionally eaten on this day.
But there's more to Shrove Tuesday than pigging out on pancakes or taking part in a public pancake race. The pancakes themselves are part of an ancient custom with deeply religious roots.
Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the ritual of shriving that Christians used to undergo in the past. In shriving, a person confesses their sins and receives absolution for them.
When a person receives absolution for their sins, they are forgiven for them and released from the guilt and pain they may have caused.
Shrove Tuesday is a day of celebration as well as penitence, because it's the last day before Lent.
Lent is a time of abstinence, of giving things up. So Shrove Tuesday is the last chance to indulge yourself and to use up the foods that were considered to be indulgent. During Lent there are many foods that some Christians - historically and today - would not eat: foods such as meat and fish, fats, eggs and milky foods.
So that no food was wasted, families would have a feast on the shriving Tuesday and eat up all the foods that wouldn't last the forty days of Lent without going off. Pancakes became associated with Shrove Tuesday as they were a dish that could use up all the eggs, fats and milk in the house with just the addition of flour.
The VCAL students will be hosting this year’s
Shrove Tuesday event!
So what’s Shrove Tuesday going to look like this year?
Our VCAL students (with the assistance of Mrs Downie and our Parish Community!) will be preparing pancakes for our College community.
Pancakes will be prepared by VCAL students in their classes on Tuesday.
Pancakes will be served to:
Students in Years F- 4 at 12.30pm in their Community areas
Students in Years 5 – 8 at 1pm in their Community areas
Students in Years 9 – 12 will be served outside the new café at 1.30pm.
Students are asked to please contribute a gold coin donation to our Shrove Tuesday celebrations.
This donation will be collected as students receive their pancakes.
** We will be able to cater for gluten free diets only on this occasion. This information will be sourced from our student records.
Imagine! If each person donated $1 on this day we could have a very substantial amount to contribute to our donation to Project Compassion at the end of Lent!
Proceeds from the sale of Pancakes will kick start our fundraising for Caritas’ ‘Project Compassion’. (more about that next week!)
Ash Wednesday Liturgy
On Wednesday 6th March our school community will celebrate Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent.
Our Liturgy will commence at 12.45pm in the Brigidine Centre. All members of our College, especially parents, and our Parish Community are welcome to join us in this celebration.
We will be distributing the Ashes at this service.
At the Ash Wednesday Liturgy we will learn more about what the season of Lent means to us as individuals and as a faith community.
Note 1 – Year 7 Students will be on Camp in Harrietville on this day. They will have their own celebration.
Note 2 - Watch out for the next newsletter where I will write more about the important season of Lent.
Kirrilee Westblade
Deputy Principal Catholic Identity