On Shrove Tuesday, members of the St. John's community gathered for fun, fellowship and of course...pancakes!

A highlight of the event was the annual pancake flipping race in which members of the parish challenged one another to race around the building while flipping pancakes all the way.

 
This tradition is also kept at Washington National Cathedral, as well as other places. It is based on an old English custom that goes back to at least 1445 in Buckinghamshire where women would make pancakes in their homes on the eve of Lent and then race to church flipping the pancakes a certain number of times as the church bell was rung.

Using up fattening foods that are not to be eaten during the season of Lenten fasting is a tradition that goes back at least to the Medieval period and is still widely embraced today.

Father Michael Sniffen, assistant rector of St. John's, added this perspective. He said, "There are many reasons for giving up fattening and sweet foods during penitential seasons. We see the custom of fasting most clearly in the Church during Lent and Holy Week but it exists in other religious traditions as well, at different times of year.

Traditions of Christian fasting go back to antecedents in Levitical code, to Jesus' own fasting in the wilderness, and even to dietary customs in the medieval period.

All these reasons for fasting might be interesting (or not!), but how are they relevant to our living out the Christian faith today?

Maybe it is enough simply to say that fasting from certain things during the season of Lent reminds us that most of us in the Church can get by with less than we are accustomed to.

It reminds us to pay attention to what we are doing and eating and to live more moderately so that all God's children might have enough.

One idea is to give away things that you are fasting from so that others might share in the gifts we have been given. At a time when we recognize the material scarcity that many of our brothers and sisters must endure - we focus on the abundance of God's gifts which are to be shared among all God's people."