Shrove Tuesday
Beginning
The pancakes pop and sizzle in the pan, round and golden. The smell of coffee wafts, inviting.
This season of Easter, of Lent, begins with a feast before fasting.
We’ve done this every year for a while now. These annual traditions grounding us, giving us markers in our calendars and comfortable assumptions in our minds, re-igniting memories, reminding us who we are.
Traditionally Shrove Tuesday is a day for emptying our cupboards of temptations and a wrapping up of leftovers in pancakes, in preparation for a season of fasting. Nowadays though, if we recognise Shrove Tuesday at all, we skip the leftovers and head straight for the pancakes. And as they flip and sizzle in the pan, as the air fills with the warm aroma of anticipation, and as my children place the syrup, sugar and limes on the table, we begin this holiday season, this walk towards Easter, doing what we’ve always done, because we’ve always done it, knowing what we are doing, but not really considering why we are doing it.