Pancake Day

There is sliced banana, a shmear of Nutella,
and small shavings of vanilla ice-cream
between these two pancakes. 

Today was Shrove Tuesday, also called Pancake Day in the UK. Spiritually speaking it's the day before Ash Wednesday - the first day of Lent. So what's Lent? It's 40 days of solemn reflection when Christians abstain from certain foods, festivities and celebrations. It is supposed to replicate Jesus' sojourn for 40 days in the desert before his ultimate sacrifice (and resurrection). And then they have a massive celebration for Easter. 

Nothing to do with me, right? Wrong. First of all I grew up in England and Pancake Day meant pancakes for tea in the same way as Guy Fawkes meant Bonfire Night and fireworks. But I like to go deeper with religious traditions as everything always leads back in some way to pre-religion and the agricultural year. I'm all about finding the things that bind us, rather than what makes us different and I especially like the rational connections to nature and the natural world. This is where I personally find God. 

It is no coincidence that Shrove Tuesday is a bit of a feast, Purim has a big festive meal, and Mardi Gras and Carnival all fall in the early spring. (Sorry I don't know enough about the Muslim calender.) At this time of year everyone needed to clear out whatever was left in the winter storehouses. They used up all the food in an enormous binge-out and gave the the place a good spring clean. They were then ready for the first harvest of the year - the barley harvest in the Middle East - celebrated a few weeks later at Easter and Pesach (Passover) time. 

The religious significance of these festivals were tagged on later. 

They're forecasting snow in Jerusalem tomorrow. After a couple of weeks of spring, winter has returned with a vengeance. Of course the snow won't settle and snow days are irrelevant now that school is on Zoom. However, I made an emergency run to the supermarket to stock up on supplies for the duration. 

Tonight DD and I had a bit of a pinukiada. I just heard that word for the first time today. Pinuk means pamper or treat in Hebrew. In the way that a multi-sport sports day is called an olympiada, a multi- pinuk evening can be called a pinukiada. 

We ate pancakes. I found tiny jars of Nutella for DD. We don't use it at all otherwise, so I'd have had an almost full jar of Nutella in the fridge until next year. Next to the almost full jar of Dulce Deleche that we bought for her to make ice-cream on a school zoom activity. Not that we're such healthy eaters. I never met a carbohydrate I didn't like but we're not particulalry into sweets. Our poisons of choice are crisps, chips, pasta, and all thngs savoury. 

I actually like my pancakes with salt and lemon juice. Shoot me, I don't care. 

And now we're full and ready to eat less until the next big festive celebration. As Purim is virtually cancelled again this year (only nuclear families are allowed to meet for the festive meal), I guess we're doing Lent.