A Tradition Revived to Support
the Food Pantries of Cherokee

The Tradition

Shrove Tuesday got its name from the ritual of shriving, when the faithful confessed their sins to the local priest and received forgiveness before the Lenten season began.

As far back as 1000 A.D., "to shrive" meant to hear confessions. Shrove Tuesday also marked the beginning of the 40-day Lenten fasting period when the faithful were forbidden by the church to consume meat, butter, eggs or milk. However, if a family had a store of these foods, they would go bad by the time the fast ended on Easter Sunday. What to do?

Solution: Use the milk, butter and eggs no later than Shrove Tuesday. And so, with the addition of a little flour, the solution quickly presented itself in ... pancakes.

Today the Shrove Tuesday tradition lives on throughout Western Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia, but it is most associated with the United Kingdom where it is simply known as "Pancake Day," observed for decades with a traditional 415-yard race throughout the streets of Olney, England, to the Parish Church.