It’s Tuesday, and that means Colleen’s Tanka Challenge! And as it’s the first challenge of the month, it is the Poet’s choice of words. All that is to be adhered to is that the poem must be one of the structured syllabic forms, and so this week, I have penned an etheree…
It’s Shrove Tuesday today, so that is where my inspiration comes from.

Flip
Pancakes
For today
Is a day to
Indulge your tastebuds
Eat to your heart's content
As today is Shrove Tuesday
Tomorrow its time to give up
All manner of luxuries for Lent
Start counting down to those chocolate eggs!
Ritu 2018
Today, we discussed Shrove Tuesday in my Reception class, though most children know it as Pancake Day. It was interesting to ask if any of them were aware of why people eat pancakes on this day.
Surprisingly (not) none of them knew any of the religious significance; even the ones that are from church-going families.
It was down to non Christian me to give them a potted history of why, and talk about using up all the fats in the house and giving up these things for Lent. I had to explain that many people give other things up instead nowadays; chocolates, fizzy drinks, that sort of thing, and that it is a countdown to when we celebrate Easter, which is not (as they think) chocolate egg day, but us celebrating the ressurection of Jesus… who they only think of as a baby, as he is who we portrayed in our Nativity a few short months ago, and not a grown man.
Confusing for children much?
Just a tad!
But Christmas, Easter, Shrove Tuesday are going the way of all these ‘special’ days, commercialised so the real reasons aren’t even widely known!
We watched pancake races too, and ended with a tasting session of sweet pancakes, as some children had never eaten them before too!
For me though, my Pancake Day will be tomorrow… or the day after, as we don’t eat eggs or meat on a Tuesday! Totally against the Ash Wednesday beliefs… but then, I’m not Christian!
I just love pancakes!