Shrove Tuesday

It's shrove Tuesday. I have to admit that I forgot! But am beetling off to the supermarket to get the things I need for pancakes with lemon and white sugar, or butter and brown sugar - our own Shrove Tuesday tradition.

I was pottering about on the net, (and not writing about any of my heroines who are still all in trouble!) and came across the following...

Other old customs include the annual pancake grease at London's Westminster school (schoolboys fighting for pancakes in return for a monetary reward); Mischief Night (breaking into people's houses in disguise and demanding
pancakes); Lent Crocking or Lensharding (throwing old crockery at people's doors and asking for pancakes to be tossed back), and shroving - a visiting custom in which children sang or recited poetry in exchange for food or money. A popular shroving rhyme went like this:

'Knock, knock, the pan's hot
And we are coming a-shroving
For a piece of pancake
Or a piece of bacon
Or a piece of truckle cheese
Of your own making.'

Hmm, schoolboys fighting each other for money, breaking into peoples houses and demanding pancakes... very nice. I wonder if I should be trying a few of these traditions around my house.