Lectionary Calendar
Friday, March 29th, 2024
Good Friday
There are 2 days til Easter!
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Bible Encyclopedias
Shrove Tuesday

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Search for…
or
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Prev Entry
Shroud
Next Entry
Shrub
Resource Toolbox
Additional Links

The day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, so called as the day on which "shrift" or confession was made in preparation for the great fast. Skeat (Etym. Dict. ) derives the word "shrive," of which "shrove" is the past tense, ultimately from the Lat. scribere, to write, to draw up a law, and hence to prescribe (cf. Ger. schreiben ), through the Anglo-Saxon scrifan, to shrive, impose a penance, to judge. Shrove Tuesday is called the French Mardi gras, " 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 Catholic countries, as the last day of the carnival, with feasting and merrymaking, of which, in England, the eating of pancakes alone survives as a social custom, the day having been called at one time "Pancake Tuesday." The association of pancakes with the day was probably due to the necessity for using up all the eggs, grease, lard and dripping in stock preparatory to Lent, during which all these were forbidden.

Bibliography Information
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Shrove Tuesday'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​bri/​s/shrove-tuesday.html. 1910.
adsFree icon
Ads FreeProfile