Quite a handful of customs and traditions are closely
associated with Shrove Tuesday. As previously mentioned, the tradition of
serving pancakes is the most prominent one.
At times of Pancake Day Races contestants
dress up in aprons and scarves and race down a course flipping a pancake in
a frying pan or skillet. It is also an interesting Shrove Tuesday custom. It
is said that the people of Liberal, Kansas, United States and Olney organized
"International Pancake Day" race between the towns. It began as early
as 1950.
The Pancake Greaze is the name of Shrove
Tuesday tradition that is held every year at London’s Westminster School.
As per the tradition people prepares a pancake that is rightly toughened with
horsehair. Preparation gets completed beforehand. On Shrove Tuesday it is thrown
up in the air .This invites all the boys of Westminster School to make attempt
to get as much of it as they can.
In several towns of England tradition
of playing Shrove Tuesday football ('Mob football') games is observed in great
enthusiasm. The origin of this tradition dates back to 12th century. Although
the tradition became obsolete with the passing of the Highway Act of 1835 that
has banned football playing on public highways, a number of towns have managed
to maintain the tradition till today. These include Ashbourne in Derbyshire
(called the Royal Shrovetide Football Match), Alnwick in Northumberland, Sedgefield
(called the Ball Game) in County Durham, Atherstone (called the Ball Game) in
Warwickshire, and St Columb Major (called Hurling the Silver Ball) in Cornwall.
Balls and pageants in New Orleans and
Rio de Janiero constitute traditions of Shrove Tuesday. All the participants
wear masks and costumes, some of which are truly flamboyant and elaborate. The
Rio territory witnesses a parade of multi-colored feathers, which include myriads
of dancers dressed in gaudy feathered costumes. They dance ‘samba’
in the tune of music. In New Orleans, Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras is celebrated
with variety of parades featuring majestic floats and massive effigies of eccentric
characters. One finds no dearth of food, drinks, dance as well as practical
jokes and humorous street plays.
Apart from these prominent Shrove Tuesday
traditions few more traditions are observed by people of different places. In
Newfoundland, the Canadian province, Household objects are baked into the pancakes
and served to family members. Rings, thimbles, thread, coins etc are used. It
is interesting to note that all these objects have meanings associated with
them. For example one who finds coin in the pancake will be rich, one who gets
ring will be the first one to get married and also the finder of the thimble
will be a seamstress or tailor and so on.
In Estonia and Finland, Shrove Tuesday
is associated with hopes for the coming year. On this day, families go sledging
and devour pea and ham soup. A special toy is made from the ham bone by tying
the bone to a string and spinning it around in order to make a shrill noise.
Interestingly a popular saying is that if any one cuts his hair on this day,
it will grow fast and thick for the following year.
In Germany, Austria and Slovenia people
eat traditional food like Berliner, Krapfen or Krof.
In Iceland "Sprengidagur" (Bursting
day) is another name for Shrove Tuesday. Salt meat and peas are consumed in
large quantities.
In Scarborough, skipping is a must for
the Shrove Tuesday celebration. Traditionally long ropes are stretched across
the road while more than ten people do the skipping on one rope. However the
origin of this custom is yet to be discovered.
