01.03.2010 16:55

Easter Special

Let's give you a few more clues: Shrove Tuesday is also called Pancake Day. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday. In Germany, doughnuts are a traditional food on Faschingsdienstag. Got it? We're talking about the festive time leading up to Lent - more specifically, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. This special Tuesday was the last day of festivities before the fasting season of Lent. Pancakes and doughnuts were traditionally associated with this day because they were a way to use up rich foodstuffs such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent.

On Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, pancake races are held in towns across the United Kingdom. Participants race through the streets whilst tossing pancakes into the air and catching them in the pan whilst running. The tradition originated in 1445 when a housewife from Olney, Buckinghamshire, was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time until she heard the church bells ringing for the service. She raced out of the house to church while still carrying her frying pan and pancake. And from that time, pancake races have remained popular in the UK.
Click here and you can see the Olney Pancake Race:

An event which takes place in Britain in the middle of Lent is Mother's Day, or Mothering Sunday. This year, it’s on March 14th in the UK. Years ago, when a lot of people had servants, Mother's Day was when the servants were allowed to go home and see their parents. A Simnel cake was traditionally made to take home so that the mothers didn't have to bake for the family. And it has become a custom to eat this kind of cake at Easter.
If you'd like a recipe for Simnel cake, click on:

After the period of Lent, when even today people often give up pleasurable "vices" like alcohol, chocolate or cigarettes, comes Easter. In the western world, Easter falls between March 22 and April 25.
For other special days, which have a fixed date, try our memory:

What does Easter mean to you? How do you celebrate it? Probably not as they do in Gawthorpe, Yorkshire, where the World Coal Carrying Championship takes place every Easter Monday! Contestants have to run for one mile, carrying a 50kg bag of coal. Don't believe it? Click here and watch:

Coal carrying is a relatively new custom - less than 50 years old, whereas an Easter custom in Kent goes back to the twelfth century. The Biddenden Dole is bread, cheese and tea (it used to be beer!), which is handed out to the people of Biddenden. Nowadays, a cake is baked with an image of two women, the founders of this tradition, who were Siamese twins, born in 1100 and who died at the age of 34.

A more traditional way to celebrate Easter in Britain is to give presents of chocolate Easter eggs and to eat Hot Cross buns on Good Friday.
And so the traditions go on - Maundy Money, egg-rolling, bottle kicking - and if you want to find out more about Easter, click on: