Mon May 20, 2024By 4J Jan Yung
On 1st and 2nd February, the delightful aroma of pancakes filled every corner of our school. It was Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, which is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday. But since we would already be on our Chinese New Year holiday on the actual date, we decided to hold the event earlier. Traditionally, Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday is when Christians went to confession and were “shriven” or forgiven for their sins. A bell would be rung in the small villages to call people to confession.
This came to be called the “Pancake Bell” and is still rung today. Shrove Tuesday always falls 47 days before Easter Sunday, so the date varies from year, this year it was on 13th February. Pancake Day was a good chance to use up all the things from the pantry especially eggs and fats before embarking on the Lenten fast. CATSo members prepared pancakes to sell to Shungtakians in the hope of sending out a reminder that as we are about to embark on Lent and that we need to be practicing self-denial, fasting, and repentance.
On that day, as soon as the lunch bell rang, Shungtakians were already eagerly waiting to buy the pancakes and soon after you can see the smile on their faces. To add some more fun to the day, we also arranged a pancake-flipping competition, in which our principal and vice principals competed to see who could flip the most pancakes. Watching every Shungtakians’ smile even wider was heart-warming. I hope that Pancake Day for Shungtakians would really be a reminder. It should not only be a day of enjoying pancakes, but also a meaningful occasion which marks the start of Lent and a reminder for us to take responsibility during this period.