[Sca-cooks] Lent Approaches

[Susan Fox]

Who ya gonna call?  Myth Busters!  Thank you Johnnae.

Just shows to go ya, "Creative Anachronism" is not the exclusive 
property of our particular Society, by a long way.

Sel.

Johnna Holloway wrote:
> Sorry to play spoiler. I looked this up and it's probably more urban 
> myth or folklore than period.
>
> "The most famous, at Olney (Buckinghamshire) claims as its origin
> legend
> that back in 1445 a woman rushed off to church on hearing the shriving
> bell, still holding her frying pan. Its real age is hard to establish.
> It is not mentioned in Wright and Lones, which must mean not only that
> it was not held in the 1930s but that there were no references to it in
> older works. What is certain is that soon after the Second World War the
> vicar ‘revived’ it..."
>
> They point out that they made it nicely 500 years 1445-1945.... which
> makes the dating even more suspect.
>
> "pancake races" /A Dictionary of English Folklore/. Jacqueline Simpson
> and Steve Roud. Oxford University Press, 2000. /Oxford Reference Online/.
>
> Johnnae
>
>
>
> Christine Seelye-King wrote:
>   
>> snipped 
>> I have a hard time believing this story isn't apocryphal, but I have found
>> it in several areas and it does sound like a good activity for the class:
>>
>> In England there are several celebrations on this day but perhaps the best
>> known one is the Pancake Day Race at Olney in Buckinghamshire which has been
>> held since 1445. The race came about when a woman cooking pancakes heard the
>> shriving bell summoning her to confession. She ran to church wearing her
>> apron and still holding her frying pan, and thus without knowing it, started
>> a tradition that has lasted for over five hundred years. 
>>
>> So, whatcha think?
>>
>> Christianna