Shrove Tuesday / Faschingsdienstag

Growing up, we always had pancakes for dinner on Shrove Tuesday. Not thick American-style pancakes, but crepes, rolled up with a drizzle of lemon juice and a sprinkling of powdered sugar. In England, Shrove Tuesday is called Pancake Day. Historically, people had pancakes on this day, the day before Lent begins, because they were able to use up the eggs, sugar, and fat that would become prohibited once Lent began. In Austria, the using-up-egg-sugar-and-fat-
traditional-food is Krapfen, or jelly-filled donuts. Typically Krapfen are covered with powdered sugar and filled with apricot, but during Fasching, a plethora of flavors are available including vanilla, chocolate, champagne, sour cherry with vodka, marzipan, raspberry & mascarpone.

While most Catholic countries acknowledge a pre-lenten time from the Septuagesima (the Sunday three weeks before Ash Wednesday), the festive and sometimes raucous pre-lenten season actually began in Austria on November 11 at 11:11 AM. That puts it back to about St. Martin's Day which seems like a very long time ago. Apparently the Austrians need this many months for Ball Season, a time during which just about every organization, community group, or special interest group has a ball, and celebrates whole-heartedly before Lent puts a damper on all the fun. Some balls are formal dress, some are costume parties, some are theme events. The newspaper has listed the "Ball Kalender" starting on November 11 and done lots of coverage with lots of photos from all the various balls since then.

In Austria, Faschingsdienstag is the last wild hurrah before Lent kicks in. Some cities have parades, though Salzburg does not. Just about everyone seemed to be decked out in costume today, including all the cashiers and deli workers at Spar. Even kindergarten children get in on the parties, Nikolas heading off to school in his Halloween Batman costume (much to his great joy!). His whole morning was a party which included copious amounts of streamers and confetti, a puppet show put on by a professional troupe, and hot dogs. So big a party is Faschingsdienstag, that no lunch was served at Nikolas' school and they had a half day (which didn't affect Nikolas, but did affect those that stay in the afternoon), presumably so that these pre-schoolers can go home and party some more.

And we did have our own party, of sorts, with Peter's new students and some of his old students coming over for an afternoon of Krapfen and tea and coffee. Nikolas had an overly fun-filled day and loved almost every minute of it. What a let down tomorrow will be. But I suppose that's part of the point of Faschingsdienstag, isn't it? Live it up today, because tomorrow it will be time to repent...