Happy! – Feb 28 (Pancake Day)

28 Feb 06 - 08:25 AM (#1680977)
Subject: Happy! – Feb 28 (Pancake Day)
From: Abby Sale


Happy Pancake Day!

The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is 2/28 in 2006.
That is, Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day

          Pancake Day is a very happy day,
          If we don't have a holiday we'll all run away,
          Where shall we run, up High Lane,
          And here comes the teacher with a great big cane.
  
                  English Folk-Rhymes, GF Northall, 1892

AND
"It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game."

          The ball it being booted up, the goal it did draw nigh,
          Young Williams stuck a penknife into young Jackson's thigh.
          He lashed out at the lively ball, to score was his intent,
          Young Williams missed his aim and through the goal he went.
  
                  "The Football Match," on AL Lloyd, Champions and Sporting Blades

Lloyd believes this song is most likely describing one of the very rough games traditionally played on Shrove Tuesday between lads in rival English villages. He says, "It is no ordinary game when players are lightheartedly stabbed with penknives"
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Shrive vb, shrived or shrove; shriv.en or shrived; shriv.ing [ME, fr. OE scrifan to shrive, prescribe (akin to OHG scriban to write), fr. L scribere to write] vt (bef. 12c). 1: to administer the sacrament of reconciliation to. 2: to free from guilt; ~archaic: confess one's sins esp. to a priest.
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Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
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