Fat Tuesday

This morning Joshua left for the last time, as I sobbed uncontrollably. It was such a treat to have him in and out for the last 5 weeks, I did not deal well with saying goodbye at all. I remained teary-eyed throughout most of the day, and found the site of my empty room mildly devastating.

Luckily, today is a day of celebration, and of feasting! At first I was a bit confused when I got an invitation from my small group at church to come to a pancake party. But then I remembered that the Tuesday before Lent is Mardi Gras! And what better way is there to drown one's sorrows than in a vat of Nutella?

The tradition of eating crepes on this wonderful day, was started as a way to use up all the oil, fat, sugar, and nutella before lent began, since lent is a time of fasting and abstaining from these things. It's a final day to indulge and be a biggy piggy before lent begins.

I always assumed the whole world referred to today as Mardi Gras, but I realized it's a bit like the hokey pokey (or the hokey cokey). Different parts of the world have different names for it.

Here in the United Kingdom, they call it Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday.

The name Shrove comes from the old word "shrive" which means to confess. On Shrove Tuesday, in the Middle Ages, people used to confess their sins so that they were forgiven before the season of Lent began. They say pancake instead of crepe because they hate the French.

France and the US call it Mardi Gras - which means fat tuesday. However in France people do eat crepes, whereas in American it's all about just getting drunk and loads of beads.

In Greece - it's called "Apocreas," which apparently means "from the meat" since they don't eat meat during Lent, either. I'm not sure if they eat meat-filled pancakes or just tons of meat.

In Sweden , today is Fettisdagen. Which does actually translate to Fat Tuesday - but sounds way more fun.

In Germany it is "Fastnacht." Fat night - I believe. I should work on my German since I will be there in a month with my sister! I'm not sure if they eat pancakes or pretzels, but clearly it's something fatty.

My personal favorite is Iceland, where the day is known as "Sprengidagur," which means Bursting Day.

I certainly felt like I could burst after 3 crepes, or pancakes as they call them. 1 savory, 2 sweet. It was so fun to sit watching the Brit awards with a bunch of Brits and properly celebrate Fat Tuesday for the first time ever!

I was so surprised really at how many people were celebrating. In the grocery store, the pancake-filling items were nearly out! Sitting on the bus on the way there, I realized I was surrounded by others going to pancake parties of their own, and nearly every restaurant I passed had a special pancake menu alluring posted outside.

This year, I am going to attempt to give up sweets. I used to do this every year, but have pursed other ideas the past few years. But once again, sugar-free I will be. At least until my sister arrives. Once she is here it will be a downward spiral of buttercream frosting and sticky toffee everything! Then onto Munich we will go to stuff ourselves with pretzels and Bavarian cream! So for the next month I will be dieting to prepare for the mass consumption ahead. I will also be practicing my German - since the only word I know is biergarten. I have a funny feeling though that I wont need to know much more than that, and how to order a pretzel!