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Article OLDEN HOLIDAY CUSTOMS. ← Page 5 of 11 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Olden Holiday Customs.
harmless observance , is still continued , namely , the practice of pancake eating . This is a very old ceremony , and was used in the Greek church , whence we probably derive it . Shakespeare alludes to it : " as fit as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday , or a morris for May-day . " Hakluyt says , that " the Russes make great cheer with pancakes in Lent . " At the present time it is
certain that the custom is regarded chiefly in a gastronomical point of liew , and that the cakes are annually consumed without any precise idea of their meaning . They are variously known as pancakes , fritters , or , in Hertfordshire , dough-nuts . Shrove Monday was likewise dedicated to the consumption of steaks cut from salted meats , whence known as Collop Monday . Collops is a term in very general use in the north of England for this kind of meat .
In olden times a great bell was rung at Shrovetide to call people to confession , and this was also known as the pancake bell . The following account of it was written by Taylor , the water poet , two centuries ago : — " In the morning the whole kingdom is in quiet , but by that time the clock strikes eleven , which ( by the help of a knavish sexton ) is generally before
nine ; then there is a bell rung , called the pancake bell , the sound whereof makes thousands of people distracted , and forgetful either of manners or humanitie : then there is a thing called wheaten flour , which the cooks doe mingle with water , egges , spice , and other tragicall , magicall inchantments ; and then they put itby little and littleinto a frying-pan of boiling
, , suet , where it makes a confused dismall hissing ( like the Lernean snakes in the reeds of Acheron , Styx , or Phlegethon ) , until at last , by the skill of the cooke , it is transformed into the forme of a flip-jacke , called a pancake , which ominous incantation the people doe devour very greedily . " The pancake bell recalls an usage of about twenty years since
at Hoddesden , in Herts . A curfew bell was rung at four in the morning , and again at eight in the evening ; between these hours only were pancakes made or eaten , and the restriction was looked upon as solemnly binding . In Scotland , pancakes are not made by the lower orders generally . The national crowdie takes its precedence on this as
on other occasions . The origin of the pancake is not very clearly ascertained , but is supposed to be some similar preparation in honour of the goddess Fornax , during the celebration of the heathen Fornacalia , in memory of the primitive methods of making bread before the use of heated ovens .
Allusion has been made to the cruelties anciently fashionable at Shrovetide . Such were those perpetrated by hurling wooden VOL . I . Y
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Olden Holiday Customs.
harmless observance , is still continued , namely , the practice of pancake eating . This is a very old ceremony , and was used in the Greek church , whence we probably derive it . Shakespeare alludes to it : " as fit as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday , or a morris for May-day . " Hakluyt says , that " the Russes make great cheer with pancakes in Lent . " At the present time it is
certain that the custom is regarded chiefly in a gastronomical point of liew , and that the cakes are annually consumed without any precise idea of their meaning . They are variously known as pancakes , fritters , or , in Hertfordshire , dough-nuts . Shrove Monday was likewise dedicated to the consumption of steaks cut from salted meats , whence known as Collop Monday . Collops is a term in very general use in the north of England for this kind of meat .
In olden times a great bell was rung at Shrovetide to call people to confession , and this was also known as the pancake bell . The following account of it was written by Taylor , the water poet , two centuries ago : — " In the morning the whole kingdom is in quiet , but by that time the clock strikes eleven , which ( by the help of a knavish sexton ) is generally before
nine ; then there is a bell rung , called the pancake bell , the sound whereof makes thousands of people distracted , and forgetful either of manners or humanitie : then there is a thing called wheaten flour , which the cooks doe mingle with water , egges , spice , and other tragicall , magicall inchantments ; and then they put itby little and littleinto a frying-pan of boiling
, , suet , where it makes a confused dismall hissing ( like the Lernean snakes in the reeds of Acheron , Styx , or Phlegethon ) , until at last , by the skill of the cooke , it is transformed into the forme of a flip-jacke , called a pancake , which ominous incantation the people doe devour very greedily . " The pancake bell recalls an usage of about twenty years since
at Hoddesden , in Herts . A curfew bell was rung at four in the morning , and again at eight in the evening ; between these hours only were pancakes made or eaten , and the restriction was looked upon as solemnly binding . In Scotland , pancakes are not made by the lower orders generally . The national crowdie takes its precedence on this as
on other occasions . The origin of the pancake is not very clearly ascertained , but is supposed to be some similar preparation in honour of the goddess Fornax , during the celebration of the heathen Fornacalia , in memory of the primitive methods of making bread before the use of heated ovens .
Allusion has been made to the cruelties anciently fashionable at Shrovetide . Such were those perpetrated by hurling wooden VOL . I . Y