Don't you just love Pancakes? I certainly do! all of my life I have never missed tosssing pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, I never made pancakes today as my daughter wanted to make them. Anyway here I have included some customs for Shrove Tuesday.

Enjoy!

A famous pancake race at Olney in Buckinghamshire has been held since 1445. Many towns throughout England held traditional Shrove Tuesday football ('Mob Football') games dating as far back as the 12th century. The practice mostly died out with the passing of the 1835 Highways Act, which banned the playing of football on public highways, but a number of towns have managed to maintain the tradition to the present day including Alnwick in Northumberland, Ashbourne in Derbyshire (called the Royal Shrovetide Football Match), Atherstone in Warwickshire,Sedgefield (called the Ball Game) in County Durham, and St Columb Major (called Hurling the Silver Ball) in Cornwall

In Ireland, Australia, and Canada, Shrove Tuesday is known as "Pancake Tuesday", while in Britain it is popularly known as "Pancake Day". In both regions the traditional pancake is a very thin one which is served immediately sprinkled with caster sugar and a dash of fresh lemon juice or alternatively drizzled with Golden syrup.

In the Canadian province of Newfoundland, household objects are baked into the pancakes and served to family members. Rings, thimbles, thread, coins, and other objects all have meanings associated with them. The lucky one to find coins in their pancake will be rich, the finder of the ring will be the first married, and the finder of the thimble will be a seamstress or tailor. Children have great fun with the tradition, and often eat more than their fill of pancakes in search of a desired object.

Pancakes are eaten to use up milk and eggs, which are not eaten during Lent, and would otherwise spoil during this period.

Jane (Missdaney runs 4 MSN groups on Faeries, Folklore, Angels, and Weather. She resides in Gloucestershire, England near the beautiful countryside of the Cotswold.)

http://groups.msn.com/folklorecottage