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The Stations of the SunA History of the Ritual Year in Britain$
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The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain

Ronald Hutton

Print publication date: 1996

Print ISBN-13: 9780198205708

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205708.001.0001

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Shrovetide

Shrovetide

Chapter:
(p.151) 15 Shrovetide
Source:
The Stations of the Sun
Author(s):

Ronald Hutton

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205708.003.0015

Either before or after St Valentine's Day fell a much bigger and more general festival. It began on ‘Shrove Sunday’, the seventh before Easter, continued on ‘Collop Monday’, and reached its climax on ‘Shrove Tuesday’. Its origins lay in the early Middle Ages, along with those of the long fast of Lent, which it directly preceded and which thus created it. The peculiar febrility of Shrovetide sprang from two causes. The first was that it was a last opportunity for fun before the dietary, recreational, and sexual restrictions of Lent set in. The second was that, by this season, stocks of food would have been low for many people in any case and privation considerable, so that an opportunity for the frenetic release of emotion would have been very welcome.

Keywords:   St Valentine's Day, Shrove Sunday, Easter, Collop Monday, Shrove Tuesday, Lent, Shrovetide, privation

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