ASH WEDNESDAY FIRST DAY OF LENT

The palm branches blessed on Palm Sunday,

Are the following year, burnt and blessed again

And placed on the heads of the participants

To the accompaniment of the familiar refrain

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”

And the Lenten season has begun once again

ASH WEDNESDAY

 

Ashes are placed on the heads

Of worshipers on Ash Wednesday,

Either by being sprinkled or

More often the traditional way

By being marked as a visible cross

On their foreheads on the day

ASH WEDNESDAY

 

There is a religious reason

Why it is a significant day

But cremated pancake on the hob

Is the only ash around our way

SHROVE TUESDAY

 

Since before the Christian era

Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day

Was celebrated far and wide

And was originally a pagan holiday

 

Changing seasons was a struggle

Between Jarilo the God of brightness

Vegetation, fertility, and springtime

And the evil spirits of cold and darkness

 

So, they had to help the God Jarilo

And victory meant spring had begun

So, they cooked and ate pancakes

Hot and round symbolizing the sun

BLOODY TUESDAY

 

Since before the Christian era

Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day

Was celebrated far and wide

And was originally a pagan holiday

 

Changing seasons was a struggle

Between Jarilo the God of brightness

Vegetation, fertility and springtime

And the evil spirits of cold and darkness

 

So, they had to help the God Jarilo

And victory meant spring had begun

So, they cooked and ate pancakes

Hot and round symbolizing the sun

NICKANAN NIGHT

 

Nickanan Night or Shrove Monday evening

Was a time for boys to commit petty crime

Now we don’t have it on one special night

Instead now it appears to happen all the time

MERRY MONDAY

 

Part of the traditional English Shrovetide

Falling on the Monday before Ash Wednesday

Merry Monday, is a Christian observance

Which more importantly precedes Pancake Day