Urra Moor on Pancake Day

Up on Urra Moor this morning, the sun made an appearance, but the wind still had a bite to it. This is the view across Bilsdale to Hasty Bank. If you strain your eyes, you might just make out Roseberry Topping in the far distance.

I suppose I must acknowledge that it is Pancake Day—though if one wishes to sound more religious, you might call it Shrove Tuesday.

The name comes from the Church of Rome’s practice of confession and absolution, which, in its wisdom, it decided should happen just before Lent. This means the date can fall anywhere between the 2nd of February and the 8th of March, so one can never quite plan ahead. In Scotland, it is called Fasten’s-E’en, but the Presbyterian temperament did not allow for much revelry. Elsewhere, however, people took to it with great enthusiasm, turning it into an excuse for carnival-like foolishness¹Notes and Queries. | York Herald | Saturday 22 June 1889 | British Newspaper Archive https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000499/18890622/078/0012?noTouch=true.

Bells would ring, and everyone would abandon any sense of decorum in favour of amusement and indulgence. The chief activity, aside from eating absurd quantities of pancakes, was the competitive flipping of them, as though salvation depended upon it. Shakespeare, ever observant, has a character in All’s Well That Ends Well declare something to be “as fit as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday”—a line that might as well describe the entire day²“All’s Well that Ends Well”. Act 2, Scene 2. Shakespeare..

England once recognised this as a “half-holiday,” commencing at 11 am when a church bell rang—supposedly to summon the faithful to confession, though people quickly rebranded it the “pancake bell” since it was also the signal to start cooking.

Some places still make a show of tradition. This morning, I saw the usual preparations for a pancake race on the village green, but it will be strictly for the schoolchildren. It is best for adults to stay away—one can never be too careful these days.

The most famous race takes place in Olney, Buckinghamshire, where women have been dashing about with frying pans since 1445 (save for the minor inconvenience of World War II). In 1950, Americans in Liberal, Kansas, read about it in Time Magazine and, in their usual fashion, decided to turn it into a competition. The races now take place simultaneously—if one disregards the small matter of time zones.

As a final note, Olney once had as its curate John Newton (1725–1807), a former slave trader who, in a remarkable turn of self-awareness, later wrote Amazing Grace. That, however, has little to do with pancakes.

• 1
  Notes and Queries. | York Herald | Saturday 22 June 1889 | British Newspaper Archive https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000499/18890622/078/0012?noTouch=true
• 2
  “All’s Well that Ends Well”. Act 2, Scene 2. Shakespeare.