Penance and Pancakes: The Catholic School’s Guide to Celebrating Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday takes its title from the English verb to shrive, meaning to confess and receive absolution. It is the traditional English name for what we more commonly hear called Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday. In the British tradition, it is the last day of the period known as Shrovetide, beginning on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, and just as Lent is the period of preparation for Easter, Shrovetide, and especially Shrove Tuesday, is the period of preparation for Lent. It is when Catholics decide on their Lenten sacrifices, examine their consciences, seek absolution in confession, and eat up all the eggs, milk, and butter that are traditionally not consumed during Lent. This last part has led to a grand tradition in Catholic cuisine: Shrove Tuesday is pancake day. 

It’s a perfect day for building an annual school celebration.  And, unlike other events on the liturgical calendar, Shrove Tuesday never lands on a weekend or during the summer, so it’s an excellent candidate for an annual event.

The best Catholic school celebrations build and strengthen the culture of the school. They partake in and reinforce the liturgical and spiritual traditions of the Church. They foster community by inviting families into the sacramental and social life of the school. They develop virtue in the students and give them real responsibilities, and they use joy to reinforce the students’ understanding of and devotion to the Faith.  

Key Elements of a Shrove Tuesday Annual School Celebration

The key events of a Shrove Tuesday annual school celebration are a pancake breakfast, confessions and Lenten preparation, Mass, and a pancake race. The key characteristics are as much student planning and execution as possible, community participation, and a proper blend of liturgical and sacramental elements and fun. 

A possible order of events for the day:

• Pancake breakfast
• Clean up and confession time
• Mass
• Lenten meditation
• Pancake race

These can be re-ordered. For instance, you might want to have the pancake race right after the breakfast, but be certain to leave time for the Eucharistic fast before Mass. And keep in mind that pancake-stuffed little stomachs might not go well with racing fast. The scheduling of the confession time, Lenten sacrifice meditation, and Mass will always have to be planned with the priest.

Tasks that students can do:

• Write invitations to parents and families (the school should follow-up with an RSVP e-mail to get a head count for planning).
• Write invitations to local seminarians.  They are always a good addition to student events, and almost guaranteed to like pancakes. 

The Pancake Breakfast

The pancake breakfast isn’t really the core of the day’s events, but it looks like it is. Most importantly, it sets the tone for the day. It brings students, families, and teachers together as a community over a meal, the end of one season and beginning of another, which is always a good thing.  

The pancake breakfast should be a joyful community event. It’s best to plan it to avoid any approach that tends towards, “OK, kids, everyone line up, wait your turn, and you only get one pancake.” Having the children run the event as much as possible will make it less organized, far less efficient, probably messier, and a whole lot more fun for everyone involved.  It’s a perfect event to solicit help from parents in supervising the children who are doing the work. 

Ideally, the breakfast would take place in one large space – the lunchroom or possibly the gym. And it will go most smoothly if tables are set with plates and utensils, and syrup and butter, and the pancakes are run out from the kitchen. Long lines waiting for pancakes are no fun.  

Try to have the kids make the pancake batter from scratch. Properly supervised, the students can measure and mix the ingredients as easily as they can from a commercial mix – they will have more fun and experience a greater sense of accomplishment. Guiding them to do it themselves will lead to a sense of satisfaction and interest that a pre-packaged mix can’t rival.  

As much as possible, have the children cook the pancakes. It’s the easiest kitchen activity next to boiling water. Be sure to have your cooking crew start a bit early and get a head start on making pancakes and keeping them hot until the event begins.  Then have another crew be in charge of delivering stacks of pancakes to the guests at their tables. 

Keep the breakfast simple: pancakes, butter, syrup. And perhaps milk or orange juice, and coffee for the adults. Keep in mind that you may have to accommodate allergies, but in the spirit of simplicity and community, try to avoid accommodating preferences. Don’t go crazy with toppings: the idea is a community breakfast, not a sugar-fest of sprinkles and chocolate syrup. 

Tasks that students can do for the breakfast:

• Prepare the pancake batter (with proper supervision).
• Cook the pancakes. 
• Set the tables.
• Lay out butter and syrup.
• Serve the pancakes, running them out to tables and delivering refills.
• Clean up the cooking area and tables.

Notes: 

• If no proper kitchen is available, bring in griddles, but watch the circuit breakers!
• Be certain to cook and preserve extra pancakes for the pancake race. 

Confession

In many ways, this is the core of the day. While we are joining together as a joyful community, the occasion is that of preparation for Lent, an important matter. Students and their family members should be warmly welcomed to avail themselves of the Sacrament.  

As you will hopefully have a large number of guests in addition to students and teachers, you will ideally have more than one priest available to hear confessions. So invite at least several priests if at all possible – the more, the merrier – to make it a real opportunity for everyone to go to confession. And don’t hesitate to invite the Bishop; he might not be able to make it, but you won’t know unless you ask. Planning the invitations will properly be done in close consultation with your regular priest. But be certain to invite them to be the honored guests at the pancake breakfast that precedes the Sacrament. 

Depending on your facilities, you can set up temporary confessionals with screens and chairs in classrooms or offices not being used that day. Your priest will know what arrangement is best.  

Generally, the best time for confessions will be right after or towards the end of the breakfast. Nicely printed examinations of conscience can be put on the tables in advance, and towards the end of the breakfast, a priest or school leader can invite people to use them and let everyone know when and where confessions will be held. Invite a priest to offer some catechesis on the gift and necessity of confession and penance.  

Be certain to leave plenty of time on the schedule for the priests to hear confessions before Mass.  

The confession period is also the time to clean up the dining area and kitchen. Students can rotate between confession and clean up, and then all can meet in the church for Mass at a set time. This may be the most challenging supervision part of the day, so be certain that teachers have groups of students assigned to them.  

Tasks that students can do:

• Write invitations to the priests, with a follow-up by the school.
• Place examinations of conscience on the tables. 
• Older students can move the furniture to set up temporary confessionals. 
• If necessary or desirable, students can be assigned to act as runners to let people know when confessionals are available. 

Mass and Lenten Meditation 

Mass will, of course, be celebrated by the priest, but this is a perfect day to be certain students are serving at the altar.  

The Mass of the day this year is the Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, and the readings are rich in reference to offerings, sacrifice, and giving things up to follow the Lord.  Talk with the celebrating priest about offering students and families guidance for meditating on proper Lenten sacrifices; this might be part of his homily or, perhaps ideally, a not-too-long-but-long-enough meditation immediately after Mass. 

Give the students some time to really think about their Lenten sacrifices, especially in light of going to Confession and the readings of the Mass. You will judge best whether their individual meditation is best completed in the church, or if this would be a good time for the students to quietly return to their classrooms and think about and write down their Lenten sacrifices there. Parents and other guests can be invited to do so in the church before joining the school for the pancake race afterward. 

Tasks that students can do:

• Serve at the altar.
• Quietly pass out paper and pencils (if the meditation will be in the church). 

The Pancake Race

After the more sobering Lenten meditation, the day turns back to fun and physical activity. 

Legend has it that the pancake race was born when a woman who was not done cooking her pancakes was late to Mass on Shrove Tuesday, so she ran to the church, flipping her cakes in a pan as the bells rang out. True or not, it forms the basis of the pancake race. 

The key element of the pancake race is that the children run a set course carrying a skillet with a pancake in it and flip the pancake a set number of times during the run without dropping it. But there are variations that make the race work for all ages. For the youngest students, it makes sense to keep the required number of flips very low and to use a very light pan or even a plastic plate. Allowing these young students to pick up a dropped pancake makes sense as well. Depending on your school, you might try teaming up the littlest ones with older racing buddies. 

For older students, the course can be lengthened and the number of flips increased. And it increases the competitive spirit in the older students if no dropped pancakes are allowed. Set that rule in advance: does a dropped pancake mean a loss, or does the student have to go back and start again?

The race can be run indoors or out, depending on the weather and the space available, and it can be made a team relay very easily. Teams can be made up of grade levels or house membership, if you have a house system. But for the good of the school spirit, be sure that those not actively racing are there to cheer on those who are.  

And do consider awarding a trophy or medal to the winning team or runner in a ceremony at the end. Who wouldn’t want to win the annual Golden Pancake Award?

Tasks that students can do:

• Organize teams or heats. 
• Set up the race course, including starting and finish lines. 
• Organize the pans and pancakes.  

Shrove Tuesday falls on March 4 this year, which hopefully gives plenty of time to plan and execute this new annual event. It makes for a brief but meaningful celebration, less gaudy than most Mardi Gras extravaganzas, and easier for students to place in proper order with Ash Wednesday and Lent. (And if your school celebrates Shove Tuesday this year, let us know how it goes!)