A Family Shrove Tuesday Celebration!

The Tuesday before Lent begins is a time of celebration all over the world.

Most often thought of as a time of excess and debauchery, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday is actually the culmination of the season of Epiphany. This season is a time of socially sanctioned upheaval, a season of reversal. It begins with a celebration of the magi’s visit to Jesus as an infant and their warning to flee to Egypt to escape King Herod’s wrath. God came to earth as an infant, a baby capable of terrifying a king. This story reveals to us God’s own surprising methods of upending our expectations of how things should be.

Epiphany is a time of preparation for the celebration to come at Easter—the celebration reveals to us our need for Christ’s death and resurrection. It reminds us what we will be waiting for while we fast. It’s also a reminder that we cannot truly celebrate without repentance.

Learn more about Shrove Tuesday and the history of King Cake by listening to my Kitchen Meditations podcast episode On King Cake.

A great way to celebrate Shrove Tuesday with your family is to throw a little party. You can serve pancakes or a king cake (complete with a trinket inside!) and discuss the ways God surprises us. Don’t forget to provide a crown for whoever finds the prize in their slice of cake! Talk together about how you hope to draw nearer to God in the coming season of Lent and discuss why we look forward to Easter.

We’ve got a great tool to help you host this mini-celebration: a Liturgy for Eating King Cake plus a coloring page you can use during your party. Celebrate with just your kids or invite over neighbors and friends—everyone is sure to have a blast!