St. Paul’s Church celebrates Pancake Day

By Joan Janzen

St. Paul’s United Church in Kindersley celebrated Shrove Tuesday on February 13th, serving traditional pancakes and sausage to a hungry crowd. And for that reason, it’s sometimes called Pancake Day. In exchange for a free-will offering, everyone enjoyed a delicious meal and good company with friends.

Rev. Piotr Strzelecki was dishing out pancakes to all the hungry people who came to St. Paul’s Church to enjoy a delicious pancake supper on Shrove Tuesday. Photo by Joan Janzen

Because it’s celebrated in a church, you may have already gathered that it’s a Christian festival. It’s celebrated in many countries. In some countries, the day is celebrated with pancake races, when people race each other while tossing a pancake in a pan. However, the folks at St. Paul’s didn’t participate in any races, but they were racing into the building for their pancakes.

According to information found in National Geographic, those races were sometimes used as a way to raise money for a charity. The tradition originates back to 1445 in England when a woman was so busy making pancakes she lost track of time. When she heard the church bells ringing, she ran as fast as she could to make it to church on time and arrived carrying a pan with a pancake inside.

If you’re like me, you may be wondering why Shrove Tuesday is celebrated. Although the date of Shrove Tuesday varies from year to year, it always falls on the Tuesday before the beginning of Lent, which marks the six weeks before Easter. During Lent, Christians may choose to give up rich foods, which could include pancakes, and Shrove Tuesday is the last chance to eat them. Lent represents the period when Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days.

So now you know the rest of the story, as the legendary Paul Harvey used to say.