CARNIVAL

Notting Hill Carnival (August)

Hi there !
The weekend is over but Carnival is approaching and I guess you are looking forward to it.
I’ve been doing some research on how Carnival is, or used to be, celebrated in Britain and Ireland, and I’d like to share it with you.

In England the period immediately before Lent was called “Shrovetide” (from “to shrive”: to confess sins), but not many of the festivities survived the English Reformation in the 16th century.
The day before Ash Wednesday was called Shrove Tuesday. It is also known as Pancake Day, because traditionally pancakes were made to use up the fat, eggs, milk and butter which could not be eaten during Lent.
Nowadays pancakes races are held in many towns in the UK. Each runner carries a pancake in a frying pan and tosses it while they run. The most popular race takes place in Olney, in the south of England, where it has been run each year since 1445. Some charities also organize races to raise money.

Another event that has survived is the Royal Shrovetide Football Match, which has been played in the town of Ashbourne, in the East Midlands, since at least the 12th century! However, don’t expect a traditional football match. In fact there are not many rules, one of which being “the prohibition of committing murder.”

Royal Shrovetide Football Match

Notting Hill Carnival, which, according to Wikipedia, is the second largest street festival in the world after Rio, takes place in August.

Most traditions connected with Carnival have fallen into disuse in Ireland, too, but many still make and eat mountains of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.
In the past, because of the prohibition of marriage during Lent, Shrovetide was a traditional time for marrying and most churches had at least one wedding on Shrove Tuesday.
Unmarried people did not have the same status as those who were married and practical jokes were played on them on Pancake Day. One of them was tying the door and blocking the chimney so that the house was filled with smoke.
Another custom associated with marriage was the tossing of pancakes. The eldest unmarried daughter was allowed to toss the first. If it fell among the ashes, she wouldn’t marry that year.

Pancake Tossing in Ireland (1850)

One practice that I was surprised to read about – because of its cruelty and also because something similar was common in some towns in Spain – has to do with cocks. In the 19th century a cock was tied to a stone. People paid a penny to throw a stick at the poor bird. If you killed it you could take it home.
What some people still do in Ireland during Lent is to abstain from (to give up) something they like, for example sweets, alcohol or cigarettes.

I hope you tell us what you are planning to do at Carnival.

Chema