Shrove Tuesday, the Iowa way
Churches prepare for Lent with pancakes, sausages and more pancakes
CEDAR RAPIDS — Mardi Gras in Iowa doesn’t have multiple parades or extravagant costumes, but sometimes there are hats.
At Christ Episcopal Church in Cedar Rapids, volunteers preparing the Shrove Tuesday pancake supper had a table of festive hats to choose from. Lesley Fleming was wearing one as she greeted feast-goers.
Fleming said the church has held the pancake supper for decades. Traditionally, it’s been a fundraiser put on by the church youth, but “there are growing pains as far as youth are concerned,” so adults have joined in the preparation and serving.
One of those adults was former state Sen. Rob Hogg. He’s in his second year of helping, but he directed incoming food traffic like a pro. “Sausage, plain, specialty,” he called out, pointing to three warmers in succession. For the sausages, there were links and patties; for the pancakes, plain, chocolate chip and blueberry. Whipped cream, big pats of butter, syrup, applesauce and apple juice rounded out the offerings.
Eric Fleming, Lesley’s husband, said the specialty pancakes are especially popular with kids. The church uses 40 to 50 pounds of pancake mix, cooked on three griddles that hold six pancakes at a time.
While chocolate chip pancakes are a staple in Cedar Rapids, they were a near-disaster in Fort Dodge. “They gummed up the griddle,” the Rev. Kristine Leaman of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church said via a phone interview. One innovation for this year is gluten-free pancakes. She got the idea when visitors to the church mentioned a need for it in the Eucharist host.
The Episcopal Church’s website explains the significance of this day on the Christian calendar:
Its name comes from the Germanic-Old English word “shrive,” meaning absolve, and it is the last day of the liturgical season historically known as Shrovetide. Because it comes directly before Lent, a season of fasting and penitence, this was the day that Christians would go to be “shriven” by their confessor.
Shrove Tuesday also became a day for pre-fasting indulgence. In particular, the need to use up rich ingredients such as butter, milk, sugar and eggs before Lent gave rise to the tradition of eating pancakes on this day.
At St. Mark’s in Fort Dodge, Leaman said, those rich ingredients included enough mix for eight gallons of pancake batter, two big boxes of precooked sausage, “and I don’t know how many pints of blueberries.” Leaman said about 160 people showed up in 2023.
For Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Humboldt, the pancake supper — with sausage and scrambled eggs — wasn’t a fundraiser but a thank-you to the community. “We say it’s free, and we mean it,” the Rev. Katie Russell said in a phone interview. The church youth have been holding pancake meals on the first Sunday of every month to raise money to attend the ELCA Youth Gathering. The gathering this July is in New Orleans, so it’s fitting that this is the first time the church has had a pancake supper on Mardi Gras.
The 2021 ELCA Youth Gathering in Minneapolis, like so many other conferences and events, was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic. To make up for it, there will be a “young adult” version of the gathering this year.
Another side effect of the pandemic was the addition of to-go meals at events like these. Christ Episcopal had a takeout-only supper in 2021 and has kept that as an option. St. Mark’s has done the same.
Other places with Shrove Tuesday pancake suppers included St. John’s Episcopal Church in Shenandoah, where “Rev. Holly Scherff will be making her World-Famous pancake recipe”; Goldfield United Presbyterian Church; and Traer United Methodist Church. St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Mount Pleasant was holding a pancake supper for the first time. “We thought we’d do something different this year,” said Barb Brown, office manager at St. Alphonsus. This was suggested as something that would bring in families.
The excesses of Shrove Tuesday/Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras give way to the penitence of Ash Wednesday and fasting during the Christian season of Lent. This year, Ash Wednesday is Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. Russell celebrated the convergence of the days, because “it’s an amazing way to think about the love that is the promise of eternal life.”
Hats off to that.
My other work can be found on my website, Iowa Highway Ends, and its blog.
I am proud to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. If you’re interested in commentary by some of Iowa’s best writers, please follow your choice of Collaborative members:
👍