General Chat

It was an old Jewish custom. Prophet Isaiah mentions it (Is Chap 58 v 5). Jews would fast, put on this old flax-type garment and cover their face with ashes to show how wretched and sinful they felt.

Not sure how it connects to modern Christianity, but a lot of the Jewish symbolism continued down through the ages :-)

John, the ash marks our commitment to Christ as we remember that He died for our sins.


I love the words which are used as the cross is marked on the forehead...

"Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ."

Thank you Cynthia and John.

http://www.theholidayspot.com/ash_wednesday/customs_tradition.htm

Thank you for the interesting link Joy. :-D


Must admit that I am also looking forward to Shrove Tuesday.....purely for the pancakes.... :-D

My OH is a super pancake maker....well, he was. Just hoping he can make some this year although he does tire quite quickly now.

You're welcome. I love pancakes :)

I like this school site:
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/shrove.html

I've used that site quite a bit in the past Joy......it has some interesting articles on it.

I used to lead occasional assemblies and was always on the lookout for good sites to help me out.


Goodnight all. :-)

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day). is from shrive apparently. Shrive is to confess, to obtain absolution for sins before the fasting season of Lent (which starts with Ash Wednesday).

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) in French
Dydd Mawrth Ynyd (Shrive Tuesday) in Welsh
Mairt Inide in Irish

In England, towns hold traditional Shrove Tuesday "mob football" games. Think these include Alnwick in Northumberland, Ashbourne in Derbyshire (called the Royal Shrovetide Football Match), Atherstone (called the Ball Game) in Warwickshire, Sedgefield (called the Ball Game) in County Durham, and St Columb Major (called Hurling the Silver Ball) in Cornwall. Confirmation would be good if anybody lives nearby.

Pancakes are at the very centre, and I am grateful that Hayley has contributed her recipe in a timely fashion. The most famous pancake race is Olney in Buckinghamshire (M1 J14), which has been held since 1445. Rev John Newton ("Amazing Grace") was Rector there in 18th century.

The race is followed by a service in Olney parish church. :-)

Why has Hayley's recipe for pancakes been reported? It was relevant to the topic as Pancake ( Shrove) Tuesday was being discussed.

Whoohoo someone has been busy whilst they thought we were in bed :-D

I WAS in bed Supercrutch, and I'm sorry that the posts have been RR'd.

Anyone is welcome to make a contribution even when the comments are an attempt to annoy the OP or to distract from the topic being discussed.

I would be quite happy for them to be re-instated.



John, I see you have been googling again - I'm sure Methodists must observe Lent but maybe not in the tradition of Anglicans or Roman Catholics. The tradition of eating pancakes stems from the time when all the rather 'rich' foods in the house, eggs etc., were eaten up before the start of fasting for Lent.


I have to admit to being a dreadful 'faster'. To counteract this, rather than 'give something up for Lent', I try to 'take something up' and will either do something extra (go the extra mile for someone) or will discipline myself to read and learn more about the season.


Now I had better check someone has had his meds and start the process of getting ready for 'you-know-where'. ;-)

Surely if you want to use up the 'rich foods' you would make cakes, not pancakes?
If eggs and milk, then make custards.
If eggs and butter, cakes.
This has always perplexed me.

so many reported postngs, yet none of them offensive in any way at all :-S :-S

Hi patchem,

Just having a quick coffee before I scoot off.


I know what you mean, and it seems that making pancakes is a British tradition of celebrating Shrove Tuesday. Maybe because you could have both sweet and savoury fillings???

Other countries celebrate with different foodstuffs. The link Joy gave above is quite good at explaining things.

Hope this helps, but I am not an eggspurt...... :-D :-D

Pancake races on Shrove Tuesday, were an annual event in our village, a thick heavy pancake was needed :-D.

http://www.bygonebodiam.co.uk/Bodiam%20Pancake%20Race.htm

These were timed races against North Somercotes in Lincolnshire. (how these first started I do not know, perhaps there is someone from that village that does & could let me know) I think it was the vicars last parish, but I may be wrong.

Pancake Races came up in conversation a couple of years ago with an American 3rd cousin (or something distant like that!).

We were showing him and his family around his ancestral 'home " - the Isle of Sheppey - when the local guide mentioned them. His teenage daughters knew nothing about Pancake Day, Pancake Races or Shrove Tuesday. It was only when we got as far as 'the beginning of Lent' that the penny dropped!

Making Pancakes from the available ingredients might make them go further to feed more people than a cake would. Could that be the reason?

I must admit I was somewhat surprised that all those posts had been reported.

Personally, I don't mind at all. It is easy to scroll past and ignore anyway (as someone said on another thread). Many a pancake recipe like Hayley provided is in church magazines anyway, and I just took it she had offered that in a christian (if not Christian perhaps) spirit.

And it is no different to being in church and a busload of fairly "unchurched people" suddenly descends on a service. I welcome that, as The Lord can deal with it even if we can't. Two weeks ago, our little service was moved from the chapel to the pub, when a couple of the men drinking said they were interested in what we did but the chapel was too cold and too strange an environment for them. It was a warm, if slightly odd service.

And the 1904 Revival in these South Wales valleys and beyond was not fuelled by us churchy types. It was those either on fringes of church worship or those (often coal miners) who were out and out atheists. They came into churches and chapels often to disrupt services - and within months they were totally committed to serving the Lord and often the leaders of large congregations.

Our God works in mysterious ways :-)

As I have already said on Sues thread I will be voicing my concerns to GR why my posts have been removed, the pancake post was keeping in with current topic there was before my post and since been links added to this thread which have been neither reported or removed, why mine? All my posts on this thread have been polite and I have not been rude or insulted anyone.

And thank you Cythia I KNOW I am welcome to post on here as a paying member I can post on any thread I choose to do so and I will do, as when I told I am not and have my post constantly RR then it is deemed as bullying and this very unchristian isnt it !

I don't like bullying in any form Hayley so I hope this matter is sorted quickly. Would you like to post your recipe again please - I missed it completely. :-D



I thought today was just going to be a normal Sunday but I was wrong....pleasantly so. We have an adult study group called Mustard Seeds and, this morning, they gave us a very interesting presentation of what the group is about.

It included a PowerPoint presentation and thoughts from some of the group.

One interesting point which came out was something I had never heard before. It was about a protein called Laminin which forms a network foundation for most cells and organs in our bodies. Apparently, when it is viewed, it is cross-shaped! One lives and learns........ :-)


The name Mustard Seeds comes from the various stories in the bible which mention that even if we only have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. It is the tiniest of seeds and we were all given a card with some mustard seeds stuck to them to remind us of our faith.


It was quite a 'broody' Sunday morning too...... :-D Someone brought her eight month old twin grandchildren with her and, when it came time to receive communion, she was obviously wishing to go to the altar with them so I offered my help and carried one of the babies with me. Awwwwww.....so lovely.


After the main service we had 3 baptisms and one of the babies arrived in a Silver Cross coach built pram which had been newly restored. It was wonderful to see a proper pram again and I couldn't resist rocking it for a minute or two. It brought back some lovely memories. :-D :-D


Lovely morning...........

Hayley. I am very upset too. Hope you believe that. I have just come back from my service and all "hot place" has broken loose on a couple of threads.

For what it's worth, no prams and babies to cuddle (worse luck) but one of the nicest services for some time. It was what we call "own arrangement" and one of the ladies took it. She is a mother in her early 50's and very local and down to earth.

Sermon was about the wealthy young ruler who was told by Jesus to sell all his possessions to go to heaven and he would do anything but that. She contrasted his approach to Jesus with the tax collector in the following chapter.

I was also thinking of St Valentines Day as we sang that lovely hymn: "O love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee".

We all have a little mustard seed of love inside us. We must let it grow and flourish. :-D