What's the origin of pancake day? Using up flour and food, old food, which you will given up for lent, a Christian festival. But it probably goes back to pre-Christian days, when spring cleaning got rid of old food ready for the next harvest.
I wonder whether the fast days were for going without to help eke out supplies for your own family, or throughout the community. Or could it have been to stop the old food contaminating the new? Looking at the cereal and dairy supplies (in pancakes), you are removing the old flour, giving the utensils a rest period (like the seventh day of rest for families and animals, and fields lying fallow).
A Discovery channel programme investigated the ten plagues and the deaths of the firstborn Egyptian children of the ruling class. The called in detectives and forensic investigations of possible causes of death. After eliminating as unlikely the invasion of every home and striking down of only one inmate, they looked at the possibilities or deliberate or accidental poisoning.
Investigators compared mass deaths with later outbreaks in rural communities. They found incidences in American history of deaths from St Vitus's dance, which is caused by contamination of stored cereal crops (used to make flour) in unduly wet weather.
The conclusion was that it was likely that the richer pharaonic tribes lived in one area, eating one feral crop, whilst the slave or servant or foreign group lived elsewhere eating another crop. The richer people had stores of crops. The first born child was traditionally given a double portion of the food, because the firstborn was favoured, (and often as much as four years older if breastfed).
Not knowing the cause of the problem, or knowing the cause and wanting the entire population to abide by the rules for preventing it happening again, the rulers then established a rule or tradition of using up old flour, making it both fun (pancake day) and serious (abstaining for lent).
The Jewish festival of Passover celebrates the passing over of the children who were not killed by the angel who supposedly slew the Pharoah's first born, and includes removing all wheat from the house for a week, and using all new crockery. This was depicted in paintings as the last supper, a springtime meal. (Though the bread is might be shown in famous paintings as risen dough rather than flat unleavened bread.)
If you do not observe the Jewish nor the Christian abstentions, you may still find yourself surrounded by people celebrating pancake day and may wish to have fun following the recipes given for making pancakes.
Commerce and marketing now cater for all religions and traditions and are keen to promote anything which sells more goods and keeps well-fed happy customers. If you eat pancakes, but have not had any recently, you will enjoy the promotion of pans and pancake recipes.
Pancakes in America are often small fat items. They can be bought readymade in stacks like biscuits (which in the USA are called cookies).
British pancakes are larger and thinner. British pancakes are half way between the American and French versions.
The thinnest pancakes are the wafer thin French crepes which are huge and rolled up, sold around moated Mont St Michel, in Northern France, sometimes with the addition of Grand Marnier or liqueur.
Enjoy pancake day.
