Shrove Tuesday in Ireland involves pancakes and some long established customs relating to marriage.
Shrove Tueday (in Irish Máirt na hInide) or Pancake Tuesday is the name given to the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. For observant Catholics, Lent consists of a six week period of fasting and abstinence prior to Easter.
In times past Shrove Tuesday was an opportunity for people to indulge a little before the discipline of Lent started. In many countries this took the form of public celebrations such as Mardi Gras. As Dr Daithí Ó hÓgáin from the UCD Department of Folklore explains in Ireland the tradition is different.
It’s a family festival .
A viewer phones the programme with her childhood memories of Pancake Tuesday. She remembers it as,
A magical time in our home...all centered around the pancakes.
Folklorist Síle De Cléir says that the strict Lenten diet rules for Catholics gave rise to surplus butter, eggs and flour being used up in advance of Ash Wednesday, and so Shrove Tuesday became,
A last fling before Lent.
Fortune telling was also associated with the tossing of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. An incorrectly tossed pancake meant no marriage would take place that year for the person who tossed it.
Marriage was held in the highest regard in Irish society. Young people were expected to get married, and weddings took place between the start of the new year and Lent.
In some parts of the country women who remained unmarried were marked out with chalk on their backs on the first Sunday in Lent, while bachelors had salt thrown at them. Eibhlín Ní Mhurchú a broadcaster, poet and seanchaí (storyteller) explains that the term used for this day in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht refers to a cross expression on someone’s face,
Domhnach na Smut.
This episode of ‘Teletalk’ was broadcast on 14 February 1994. The presenter is Ciana Campbell.
'Teletalk' was first broadcast on Monday, 5 October 1992 and continued until 1994. It was aired on RTÉ One from Monday to Friday immediately following the 11am News Headlines and was billed as part of the RTÉ morning television schedule. Presented by Ciana Campbell, it featured a panel of experts chatting about the issues of the day. Contributions also came from a viewers who phoned in to contribute to the discussion.
