Shrove Monday (also known as Collopy Monday, Rose Monday, Merry Monday or Hall Monday) is part of the Shrovetide or Carnival observances and celebrations of the week before Lent, following Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday and preceding Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras.
Shrovetide
The word
shrove is the past tense of the English verb
shrive, which means to give
absolution for someone's
by way of confession and forgiveness. Thus Shrovetide gets its name from the shriving that English Christians were expected to do prior to receiving
absolution immediately before Lent begins. Shrove Tuesday is the last day of "shrovetide", somewhat analogous to the
Carnival tradition that developed separately in countries of Latin Europe. The terms "Shrove Monday" and "Shrove Tuesday" are no longer widely used in the United States or Canada outside of liturgical traditions, such as in the
Lutheran,
Anglican, and
Roman Catholic Churches.
Collopy Monday
The British name
Collopy Monday is after the traditional dish of the day, consisting of slices of leftover meat (
collops of
bacon) along with eggs.
It is eaten for
breakfast and is part of the traditional
preparations. In addition to providing a little meat, the collops were also the source of the fat for the following day's pancakes.
It is rarely celebrated these days.
In east Cornwall, it is sometimes called Peasen Monday or Paisen Monday after the custom of eating pea soup on that day.[
]
-
Tony Deane & Tony Shaw, Folklore of Cornwall (The History Press, 2009), p. 152.
-
Margaret Ann Courtney, Cornish Feasts and Folk-lore (Beare & Son: 1890 (revised and reprinted from The Folklore Society Journals, 1886–87)), p. 21.
German carnivals
Shrove Monday is part of the German, Danish, and Austrian Carnival calendar, called
Rosenmontag. In the
Rhineland, as part of the pre-lenten Fasching festival (or Feast of Fools), it is part of the parade season, a day of marching, revelry, and satirical floats.
[ Karneval revellers brave chilly rain for Rosenmontag parade . AFP/thelocal.de 23 February 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2009] In the Carnival in Denmark, it is called
fastelavnsmandag.
Eastern Orthodox traditions
In the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar (most years falling later than the Western Church, usually in March), the start of Lent is called
Clean Monday. This is not identical to Shrove Monday, which precedes the start of (Western) Lent by two days. Clean Monday is the first day of the
Great Lent, and is traditionally considered the beginning of spring in
Greece and
Cyprus, where it is a Bank Holiday.
[ bank-holidays.com. Retrieved 24 February 2009] Different traditions take place in different localities. In the town of
Tyrnavos, for instance, feasts are followed by songs and dances with
bacchanalia overtones.
[ Shrove Monday in the town of Tyrnavos. agrotravel.gr Retrieved 24 February 2009]
Caribbean
In the 19th-century Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, a
kambule (procession of people holding torches) took place in the earliest hours of Shrove Monday.
[Maureen Warner-Lewis, Central Africa in the Caribbean: Transcending Time, Transforming Cultures (University of the West Indies Press, 2003), p. 221.]
Carnival Monday is a national holiday in Aruba, with the purpose of resting after the Carnival.
Lundi Gras
The Shrove Monday events of the
New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coast
Mardi Gras, dating back to the 19th century, have since the late 20th century been named
Lundi Gras ("Fat Monday").
See also
