The following assembly was prepared by Miss Pietrasanta and superbly read by Andrew Leivesley and Matthew Buxton. Thank you also to Megan Gilbert for the A/V presentation.
Do you know what day it is next Tuesday? Will you be eating anything special?
It’s Pancake day!
What is the other name for this day?
Shrove Tuesday- this is a cheerful celebration because it means that winter is nearly over and warmer days are just around the corner. It is a time when Christians say sorry for all the things they have done wrong before the start of Lent. It is part of the traditional Christian calendar and Shrove Tuesday is the last day before the beginning of Lent. The first day of Lent, next Wednesday, is called Ash Wednesday.
Does any one know anything about Lent?
It marks the period of 40 days before Easter. In this time we think about Jesus, now he has grown up (no longer the baby we met at Christmas). Aged 30 and at the start of doing the work that God wanted him to do, he went into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. The 40 day period is a time of reflection and sacrifice for Christians, during which they especially recall the time that Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness. In all that time Jesus did not have any food to eat. How many of you come home at teatime saying ‘I’m starving’ even though you had lunch a few hours earlier – and probably a biscuit in between lunch and tea!
To remember Jesus going without food, Christians have traditionally made Lent a time of fasting, of going without. Non-Christians sometimes take on this custom too, as a way of giving up something they don't think is good for them, or as an exercise in self-discipline. A lot of people give something up for Lent.
Do you know anyone who has? Perhaps you have? And where do pancakes come in?
Chocolate is a favourite thing to give up nowadays. Traditionally, it was eggs, butter, milk and meat. Because of this it became customary for people to use up their fats and eggs before Lent started by making pancakes. In fact, these fried flat cakes became so important to marking the start of Lent that it became known as Pancake Day, or Pancake Tuesday. Pancakes used up eggs, milk, butter and fats, which could not be eaten in Lent. They were simple to make, and were popular with everybody.
There are recipes for Shrove Tuesday pancakes going back to a 1439 cookbook. The tradition of tossing pancakes is an old one too with records dating back to 1619.
Here are some frivolous facts: Ralf Laue from Leipzig broke the world record for pancake tossing by tossing one 416 times in 2 minutes, and Mike Cuzzacrea ran a marathon while continually tossing a pancake for no less than 3 hours, 2 minutes and 27 seconds. The world's biggest pancake was cooked in Rochdale in 1994; it was an amazing 15 metres in diameter, weighed three tonnes and had an estimated two million calories.
A tradition of pancake races has also grown up, supposedly dating back to 1445, when a woman who was cooking her pancakes lost track of time. She heard the church bells calling people to a service, and ran out of the house still holding her pan and flipping the pancake!
Mardi Gras festivals around the world are also associated with Shrove Tuesday. Mardi Gras literally means fat Tuesday. The famous Mardi Gras festivals of Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans thus stem from the same preparation for Lent, and getting rid of the forbidden foods.
Shrove Tuesday is not just about using up food though. It has a special significance of its own. Catholics traditionally go to confession on this day, to admit their sins to the priest and be absolved (forgiven) for the things they have done wrong. This process of confession and absolution used to be called shriving hence Shrove Tuesday. Again this is an old tradition. Over 1000 years ago, a monk wrote in the Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Institutes:
'In the week before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him.'
This was done in order to start Lent with a pure soul. Confessing the bad things you have done has been, and still is, a crucial part of Christianity. In Catholicism this is done by priests, who forgive you on behalf of God, whom they represent. In Protestant churches, you confess directly to God through prayer. Either way, you receive forgiveness and you are freed from a guilty conscience. Many non-religious people would agree that to confess the things you feel guilty about to someone helps you to feel less guilty. Its not always healthy to bottle things up. Get it off your chest they might say.
During Lent Christians prepare their hearts and minds for Easter. One of the ways they do this is thinking of the ways they have let God down by forgetting him or doing bad things that don’t show his love. Next Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday, Shrove means to say sorry for all the things you have done, of realising that it was because of all the bad things we had done that God sent Jesus to forgive us.
However saying sorry is not enough if you then go and do the same thing again – and again – the next minute or the next day.Have you ever had a fight with your brother or sister, said sorry when you hurt them, and then hit them again 5 minutes later? I think it means you weren’t really sorry the first time. So I want you to think about something you do that keeps on getting you in trouble. It could be fighting with your brothers or sisters, not keeping your room tidy, talking to your friends when you should be listening to your teachers, or anything. Whatever it is - I want you to think about giving that thing up for Lent and beyond - and truly saying sorry.
I am going to say a very simple prayer and I am going to leave a moment of quiet at the end in case you want to add your own sorry and then if you agree you can join with me and say amen together.
I’m sorry when I’m unkind and when I forget to say thank you,
I’m sorry when I don’t take care of my toys or when I don’t want to share them.
I’m sorry for sometimes being naughty and then pretending it wasn’t me.
I’m sorry for not being careful and for sulking at bedtime.
I’m sorry when I forget that you love me all the time.
(pause)
Thank you that when we say sorry you will forgive us because of Jesus. Amen.
Shrove Tuesday is the last celebration before what is a serious period of contemplation, before the next big celebration at Easter time. The tradition of giving Easter eggs comes from the fact that people would have given them up for so long, and would be allowed eggs again at Easter.
Christians believe that when you say sorry to God he will forgive you because of Jesus and forget all about the wrong things you have done in the past. And that is what Shrove Tuesday is all about. I hope you remember it when you are eating your pancakes next week.
Let us stand for the Lord’s Prayer ….. Our Father
