Carnival - Pancake Tuesday and some History

Carnival, the days before lent, is a big celebration here in Panama as it is in most parts of Latin America. When I was in Ecuador people celebrated by throwing water over everyone, but they also had many house parties and other events. Originally, of course, this was an opportunity to have a sort of "last fling" before the austerity of lent woul begin.

In Ireland, I'm not sure that Carnival was ever a very big celebration. Certainly, in my lifetime, the emphasis was on lent and the only nod that was given to Carnival was what has come to be called Pancake Tuesday, more traditionally known as Shrove Tuesday.

Shrove is an old Anglo-Saxon word that is the past tense of the verb "to shrive" which means to confess one's sins and do penance. Once this was done, on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, there was a celebration in which all the things that could not be eaten during lent - eggs, butter, sugar, meat etc, were consumed. In part there was a practical explanation for this too - there was no way of preserving foodstuffs such as these so they were consumed rather than be wasted. This is, incidentally, the origin of Easter eggs too: eggs were not eaten all during lent and were considered a real treat when people got to eat them once again on Easter Sunday morning. This, over time, was translated in to the custom of eating eggs made from chocolate: if an egg was a treat, a chocolate egg was a real expression of luxury.

The eating of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday is a throwback to these times when lent really was a time of fast and abstinence, for the whole forty days. It's good to remember that these "little traditions" that we observe have their origin in deeply held practices that expressed the faith of the people who observed them. Even if we don't now keep lent in the same way, at least we can be aware of where all these chocolate eggs come from: although I'm pretty certain that our ancestors wouldn't know what to make of the fact that these chocolate eggs are now available long before lent begins, not to mind waiting for Easter Sunday morning.

In Panama Carnival is a big family occasion and a great many people are heading to "the interior" for the days from Sunday to Tuesday. Many of the clergy will also head to be with there families which means that there is currently a bit of a scramble to find priests to celebrate masses in parishes where the priest will be celebrating with his family. It's nice to be involved; it's nice to be able to help too; but, inevitably, a certain amount of saying "no" is also involved as I am not yet able to be in two places at the same time.