HINTON W.Va. (Hinton News) – The annual Fat Tuesday Pancake Dinner will be held at Ascension Episcopal Church in Hinton on Tuesday, March 4 at 5 PM. Following the meal, there will be a Service of Ashes to recognize the beginning of Lent. Ascension is located at the corner of 5th and Temple, across from the old middle school.
There will be plenty of pancakes and syrup, eggs, bacon, apples and drinks. All are welcome, there is no charge.
Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday is an ancient Christian tradition celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent. Lent is traditionally a time of abstinence, of giving things up, as we remember Jesus’s 40 days of fasting in the wilderness. In the old days there were many foods that observant Christians would not eat during Lent: foods such as meat and fish, fats, eggs, and milk. So that no food was wasted, families would feast on Tuesday, and eat up all the foods that wouldn’t last the forty days. When you put together milk, fat and eggs, what do you get? Pancakes!
This tradition dates back to the middle ages. Yet, nobody knows just how long people have been making and eating pancakes. We do know that twelve thousand years ago primitive families ground grains and nuts, added water or milk, shaped the dough into flattened cakes and baked them on hot stones around the fire.
I suspect that the making and eating of pancakes has always been much the same . . . a noisy, stimulating, exhilarating, greedy, happy time. You can help carry on that tradition by joining us Feb. 9th for the Fat Tuesday Pancake Dinner. Come hungry!
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