Kitty's Corner

Today is the day where shrovetide is celebrated here.

In most Christian denominations, Lent is a 40-day liturgical season that represents the time Jesus spent in the desert, where, according to the Bible, he endured temptation by Satan.

The purpose of Lent is to prepare the believer - through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial - for the annual commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus, as celebrated during Holy Week, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter.

As the fast applies to festivities as well as foods, the implication was that food stored from the previous harvest should be eaten before it went bad during the period. People naturally developed a desire to hold a large celebration at the last possible opportunity before fasting. From heathen times, the transition from winter to spring was also a reason to celebrate. The celebrations developed into a carnival, which comes from the Latin "carne vale" or "goodbye to meat".

Denmark calls this carnival "Fastelavn", which derives from the Low German "Fastelovend" or "Fastnacht" - "the evening before the fasting".

In practice, the Danish carnival celebration takes the form of children in carnival-inspired costumes and make-up beating wooden barrels, scoffing candy and eating round sweet rolls usually covered with icing and filled with cream (Lenten buns).

In the game of "Slå katten af tønden" ("beating a cat out of a barrel" ), the children hit a suspended wooden barrel that is full of candy until the bottom of the barrel breaks and candy starts to fall out. The child doing this becomes "kattedronning" (queen of cats). After the candy pours out, the game continues until the entire barrel is broken. The child who knocks out the last piece of the barrel becomes "kattekonge" (king of cats).

Today, the barrel has the image of a cat painted on it. Historically, however, there was a real black cat in the barrel, and beating it was superstitiously considered a safeguard against evil. It was once believed that killing a cat meant a town could avoid the plague.

During the celebrations, children sing songs and rattle a bundle of fresh beach twigs laced with cut-out figures in the faces of parents and others to wake them up. In fact, this tradition symbolises Jesus’ suffering on the Cross.


So, like others of our holidays, we use these for an excuse to enjoy ourselves by eating candy and buns.