Vastenavond / Pannekoekendag

Today we celebrate Pancake Day, a tradition of the United Kingdom. It is celebrated the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday that begins Lent.

Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter is was traditionally a time of fasting and on Shrove Tuesday, Anglo-Saxon Christians went to confession and were "shriven" (absolved from their sins). A bell would be rung 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 to year. Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity to use up eggs and fats before embarking on the Lenten fast and pancakes are the perfect way of using up these ingredients.

Pancakes, you either love them or hate them. They are a thin, flat cake, made of batter and fried in a frying pan. A traditional English pancake is very thin and is served immediately. Golden syrup or lemon juice and caster sugar are the usual toppings for pancakes, but in modern times, anything goes, sweet or savory.

The pancake has a very long history and featured in cookery books as far back as 1439. The tradition of tossing or flipping them is almost as old, and is still now a family tradition in the kitchen.

In the UK, pancake races form an important part of the Shrove Tuesday celebrations - an opportunity for large numbers of people, often in fancy dress, to race down streets tossing pancakes. The object of the race is to get to the finishing line first, carrying a frying pan with a cooked pancake in it and flipping the pancake as you run.

For those of you here it is still celebrated, many supermarkets stock premade ones, packets to which you add minimal ingredients, or for those cooks amongst us the basic ingredients can be found very easily.

So is you are unsure what to have for lunch, or later for dessert after dinner or for supper, on this glorious sunny day, grab or make some pancakes and join in with the celebrations.

Remember if you are looking for a sunny terrace to eat those pancakes, maybe next year! We here at Golf Sun Spanish Properties have properties waiting for you. We are here to help.