Shrove Tuesday.

Pancake Day - it is amazing how such simple food can create so much excitement, my kid's could not wait to get home from school to start cooking and eating. They do epitomize pre fasting festivities for me - the smell, as they sizzle in soon to be forbidden butter and the taste, sprinkled with lemon and sugar.

After  the tossing and the eating was over and friends had left,  we turned our thoughts to the start of Lent and the weeks to follow.

Traditionally in some churches Alleluia is not sung during Lent and , although the church we attend does not follow that tradition, I find it a good way to transition from festivities to the more rigorous observance of Lent. In the centre of our dinner table is our Alleluia , at the end of the evening it is hidden away in a plain brown box until Easter Day when it is again appropriate to shout a victory shout of praise.