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Posted by Lynn Wehner in Faith on Friday, March 04, 2011 9:00 AM
Next week, we shall witness the arrival of Ash Wednesday. How it got here, I honestly don’t know. We’ve had all the planning time in the world, but then, seemingly ... Boom! Sneak attack!
So I’m scurrying a bit with my last-minute ideas for “giving up” and “adding in.” And I’m realizing that a plan now needs to be finalized in our home for saying good-bye to this season and ushering in the Lenten journey.
Our custom is a “Pancake Tuesday” supper, per the old English practice of emptying out the larders of butter, eggs, and cream to prepare for the Lenten fast. It had become quite a lively tradition for our previous parish’s family ministry. I mean, who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner? And all that butter and syrup? A feast fit for a king! (The only challenge was those leftover sausages and glorious strips of bacon that don’t quite cut it for the next day’s meat abstinence regimen.)
Easy Project Idea: An Alleluia Farewell
Other than the feasting with friends, our favorite part of the supper was gathering the children to make “Alleluia Boxes.” Each family brought a shoe box with them, and we handed out paper, markers, and stickers for each of the kids to create an “Alleluia” sign. We were just crazy enough to then give them all noisemakers, party hats, balloons, and anything that screams “Party!” Cranking the tunes, we danced and sang like nuts, with the following instruction: “When the music stops, immediately sit down silently where you are.” Crazy as it sounds, they actually did it! Each family then quietly put all of their party supplies and Alleluia signs into their box … where it all would remain, hidden in the dark, for 40 days. Ready to be opened for a resurrection celebration on Easter morning.
How about your own traditions? Do you host or attend a Mardi Gras gala? A Shrove Tuesday feast? Do you ring out ordinary time in a less-than-ordinary way?
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At home we do “Pancake Tuesday” or “Fat Tuesday” as it is called in numerous places. At school with my Kindergartners, we have a Mardi Gras Celebration with some treats, masks and some Creole’ music. It’s a blast! The next day is Ash Wednesday, so we go to church and receive ashes with the rest of the school, and start our “Good Deed” charts.
http://www.sadlierreligion.com/webelieve/main.cfm?sp=student§ion=activity&grade=1
If you go to that website there are printables you can run off. That is the Religion Series we use in our school. We also do the “Lenten Adventure” through Holy Heroes. The kids love it!
With teens in the house, we have a Mardi Gras feast after dinner on either Shrove Tuesday, or some years (to avoid being up late on a school night when we stopped homeschooling) the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. They would invite their friends to an evening ofpizza/ snacks/desserts and playing board games. Everyone was aske to bring something that they would probably be giving up or cutting back on during lent. There’s always good chocolates, chips, and pop. Other years we’ve done a movie marathon in anticipation of giving up secular videos during lent. Things had to end abruptly at midnight.
Daria, I really like the idea of tying in the Mardi Gras celebration specifically with what will be given up for Lent - bringing and celebrating with particular treats, movies. Not just a “treat free for all” 
Good fodder for conversation, too.
We really like the web sight Catholic Cuisine (http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/) and have been making Shrove Tuesday pancakes (http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2009/02/shrove-tuesday-pancakes.html) for the past couple years. It’s so much fun to make and the ingredients are easy to find. Plus I get to talk to the kiddos why we are eating such a yummy treat for breakfast and especially utilizing lots of butter.
We also make Kings Cake theme cinnamon rolls.
Is Kings Cake the one with the plastic baby inside? And the person who gets the piece with the baby hosts the next party? A priest friend brought that to our house, and our 7-year-old Leah got that piece (of course). We have hilarious pics of her later with the plastic baby sitting in her pizza and in her ice cream!
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