Welcome to Tatting Tea Tuesday. Remember to take a little time for yourself, make yourself a cup of tea and pick up a shuttle even for a few minutes. A little chocolate might be good, too. February is the month we celebrate Valentine’s Day, usually with hearts and pretty cards. This year it also has Shrove Tuesday, the last day before the beginning of Lent.
In Liberal, Kansas they also call this day Pancake Day, and have a four day celebration that includes a pancake race with the women of Olney, England. Woman in both towns compete wearing a head scarf and apron and carry a skillet with a pancake in it. They race over a curving 415 yard (about 380 meter) course and must flip a pancake once before they start and once after they cross the finish line to show they still have the pancake. The woman of Olney have been running this race since 1455. The woman of Liberal having been doing this since 1950 when the local Jaycee president saw something about the Olney race in a publication. He contacted the town of Olney and asked if they would like to race again the woman of Liberal and they have been doing it ever since. The story goes that it started when a woman was busy making pancakes to use up cooking fats, which are forbidden during Lent, when she heard the church bells calling everyone to service. Grabbing her headscarf, which was required in church, and still with with apron on and pan and cake in hand, ran for the church. In the following years other woman took to doing this as well, making it a race to see who could get to the church the fastest. This year’s race was won by a woman in Liberal with a time of 63 seconds, beating the winner of the Olney race by 4 seconds. Liberal, Kansas is a little more than 300 miles (485 kilometers) west and south of Wichita, Kansas and about the same distance south and east of Colorado Springs, Colorado (it’s pretty much in the middle of no-where). Olney is almost 60 miles (93 kilometers) north of London. If you’d like to see a little more about this race you can see an older website from last year here and a current one here.
I didn’t have time for pancakes today, but it does sound good!
Ooh, what a pretty heart-shaped teacup! And what is that I see peeking out from beneath it? The prettiest red lace I ever did see! My heart is all a-flutter.
And as for Shrove Tuesday, today was the first time I had heard of it involving pancakes. Tatskool told me. She made crepes (yum)! And so I decided to make pancakes for supper in honor of Pancake Tuesday. Now I know to take my skillet and race for the church too. LOL!
Thanks for the great post!
Gosh – now I REALLY WANT pancakes!!! I'll get to have some in April when our tatting group demos at the Maple Festival, an annual event that brings out thousands of folks willing to wait in line for hours at this outdoor event! It's one of those 'All You Can Eat' things!
We exhibitors get served immediately, however!
Your post was educational and amusing, all at the same time! But what impressed me the most is that you apparently don't have any SNOW!!! I forgot what streets and sidewalks look like!
Also, your pretty red doily looks like you may have designed it, as it seems to have that lovely edging that appears in your blog header.
That Maple Festival sounds like a good place to be. Good luck with that, but watch the syrup, you wouldn't want sticking on your tatting! And, no, we don't have snow at the moment. A little to the south of us they still have some on the ground and their talking about getting a bit of snow in the next few days. We've been very lucky compared to a lot of the country. Yes, once upon a time I designed that doily about the same time I did the edging.
Isn't that cup and saucer cute? I found it in a second hand store last month and thought it would be great for TTT for February. Thanks for noticing the doily. I haven't had a chance to make the pancakes yet, but I hope to in a few days.
The cup and saucer are TOTALLY adorable! Definitely the kind of thing I couldn't have resisted buying if I had seen them! I'll bet they weren't on the shelf at the store too long! Glad you got them!
Thanks for the history of 'Pancake Day'. What a fun tradition!
Pancakes are a must in my house on pancake tuesday and they HAVE to be tossed tho' the house elf refuses to toss his!
Your photo setup was fabulous.
What a cute teacup!
Here in SE Michigan, Shrove Tuesday is known as Fat Tuesday or Paczki(pronounced poonch-KEY) Day. It's a festive day with parties and lots of food. Paczki are similar to jelly doughnuts, but bigger and richer. They're typically filled with fruit like raspberry, strawberry, and prune, but custard is becoming popular. The paczki were made to use up any extra eggs, butter, and heavy cream before Lent. Waste not, want not! It originated from the large Polish Catholic population here.
上班好累哦，看看部落格轉換心情~~~先謝謝啦!!........................................
I don't know how long it was there, Kathy. But it's mine now!
Tatskool, maybe the house elf is afraid the pancakes will land on him? Thanks for the compliment on the picture.
I've always thought it sounded like fun, too, Cindy.
I've heard of Fat Tuesday but not Paczki Day. It's sounds good! It's amazing how different people in different places came up with ways to to not be wasteful and have something yummy, too. Thanks for sharing that, Steph.
Ah, yes, pancake day! I did have to go and have me some pancakes on this day, LOL! Thanks for sharing the story of the origin of Pancake day. Love the photo with the heart shaped teacup and the lovely red tatted doily! It's just gorgeous!
Happy Belated Pancake Day!
~TattingChic ♥
I haven't yet taken the time to have pancakes since then! I had that teacup and needed a something tatted to go with it, so I pulled out a doily had made years ago. I'm glad you like the photo, TattingChic.