Shrove Tuesday




Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras.  All names for this day, the day before Ash Wednesday, the day before Lent begins.

A day to eat all the eggs and butter and oil (pancakes! king cake!), to make one's confession (shriving!), to party big before the season of penitence and fasting begins.

And a day to burn last year's palms from Palm Sunday, to make the ashes for tomorrow.

I've participated in a couple of palm burning/ash producing events.  They are often more about the symbolism than about producing ashes.  After all, one can procure ashes from a number of church suppliers without having to do all that pounding and straining any more.  But I like symbolic acts, don't you?


Comments

Perpetua said…
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Ray Barnes said…
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Meredith Gould said…
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Note: This is a repost from last year, and I have deleted the comments from last year to (I hope) lessen confusion, so that's what's up with the deleted comments! It's not that they were at all "unworthy." Just out of date.

Penny