In the Christian calendar, Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent. In medieval times, Christians would fast some of the time, and eat only bread, vegetables and salt, during Lent in the run-up to Easter, commemorating the days Jesus spent fasting in the desert. On Shrove Tuesday, they would use up the eggs and fat in their houses to cook pancakes. In Britain, Shrove Tuesday is now known as Pancake Day.
Today, countries around the world have different traditions to mark Shrove Tuesday. Latin-influenced countries, for example, have carnivals, most famously in Rio de Janeiro and Mardi Gras in New Orleans. In Britain, families and communities get together to cook and eat pancakes. All sorts of toppings are popular, from lemon and sugar to maple syrup and chocolate sauce, and everyone takes turns flipping the pancake in the pan – hoping it doesn’t stick to the ceiling!
But there are all sorts of fascinating lesser-known British Shrove Tuesday traditions – including football, pancake races and more.
The town of St Columb in Cornwall holds the ‘Hurling of the Silver Ball’. In this traditional Cornish game, the townsmen and countrymen of the parish form two teams and compete over a small silver ball, aiming to get it to one of their two goals, two miles apart. In this picture, the ‘queen of the hurling’ sets off in a handcart in a procession before the Shrove Tuesday hurling match on 7 March 1925.
Similarly, the town of Ashbourne in Derbyshire holds the annual Royal Shrovetide Football, where two teams known as the ‘Up’Ards’ and ‘Down’Ards’ compete over the ball. The Up’Ards are traditionally those town members born north of Henmore Brook, and the Down’Ards are those born south of the river. Tradition has it that the ‘ball’ at the first game was a severed head tossed to the crowd after an execution! This photograph shows the ‘kick off’ of the game in 1928. That year, the game received Royal Assent, as Edward Prince of Wales ‘turned up’ the ball to begin the game.
Lastly, there’s always the popular pancake race, where competitors race each other while tossing pancakes in a pan! The town of Olney, Buckinghamshire claims to hold the oldest pancake race in the world, which began in 1445. Only the ‘ladies of Olney’ are allowed to take part, as this picture from 1950 shows.
