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SHROVE TUESDAY

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 1023 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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SHROVE TUESDAY , the See also:

day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of See also:

LENT (0. Eng. lenclen, " spring," M. Eng. lenten, lente, lent; cf. Dut. lente, Ger. Lenz, " spring," 0. H. Ger. lenzin, lengizin, lenzo, probably from the same root as " long " and referring to " the lengthening days ")

Lent, so called as the day on which " shrift " or See also:

CONFESSION (Lat. confessio, from confiteor, acknowledge, confess)

confession was made in preparation for the See also:

GREAT

great fast. See also:

SKEAT, WALTER WILLIAM (1835– )

Skeat (Etym. Dict.) derives the word " shrive," of which " shrove " is the past tense, ultimately from the See also:

Lat. scribere, to write, to draw up a See also:

law, and hence to prescribe (cf. Ger. schreiben), through the Anglo-Saxon scrif an, to shrive, impose a See also:

PENANCE (Old Fr. penance, fr. Lat. poenitentia, penitence)

penance, to See also:

JUDGE (Lat. judex, Fr. juge)

judge. Shrove .Tuesday is called the See also:

French Mardi gras, " See also:

FAT (O.E. fdett; the word is common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dutch vet, Ger. Fett, &c., and may be ultimately related to Greek Irian, and =apos, and Sanskrit pivan)

Fat Tuesday," in allusion to the fat ox which is ceremoniously paraded through the streets. The Germans know it as Fastendienstag. It is celebrated in See also:

CATHOLIC (Gr. KcaBoXuK6s, general, universal)

Catholic countries, as the last day of the See also:

CARNIVAL (Med. Lat. carnelevarium, from taro, tarns, flesh, and levare, to lighten or put aside; the derivation from valere, to say farewell, is unsupported)

carnival, with feasting and merrymaking, of which, in See also:

England, the eating of pancakes alone survives as a social See also:

CUSTOM (from O. Fr. costume, costume or coustume; Low Lat. costuma, a shortened form of consuetudo)

custom, the day having been called at one See also:

time " Pancake Tuesday." The association of pancakes with the day was probably due to the See also:

NECESSITY (Lat. necessitas)

necessity for using up all the eggs, grease, See also:

LARD (Fr. lard, from Lat. laridum, bacon fat, related to Gr. Naptvos fat, Napos dainty or sweet)

lard and dripping in stock preparatory to Lent, during which all these were forbidden.

End of Article: SHROVE TUESDAY

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