The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-02-25
THE LENTEN SEASON.
The Rules and Regulations for the Holy Season
of Forty Days-Gourmands Reduced to Ex-
tremity-Old Customs and 0bservances-
shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday,
Easter Sunday and Its Customs
in the Olden Time-The Simnel
Cake and "Mothering Sunday"


Cake and 'Mothering Sunday"
Tomorrow will commence the Lenten season Of
fasting and prayer, it being Ash Wednesday, which
win last forty daysthat is to say, until Easter Sun
day, which will fall this year upon April 7. To-day
Is usually known among English-speaking nations
as Shr0ve Tuesday, which in oldeR times was ac-
counted general hOl day, though 1t derives Its
name from the ancient practice In the Roman
Catholic Church OF PERSONS being shriven or
''shrove" by confessing and receiving absolution
for sins prior to the Lenten fast. In England
Shrove Tuesday is still kept, though carnival jollity
does not hold sway in former times, the chief
amusement seeming to consist in devouring an I'M
limited number OF pancakes, to the detrment OF
the stomach and the delight OF the DOCTORS At
Westminster school, one Of the most famous en-
dowed seminaries OF England's metropolis, the fol-
lowing singular custom Is observed upon ShrOve
Tuesday. even at the present time:-At eleven
O'Clock A. M. verger OF the abbey In his gown,
bearing silver Baton energies from the college
kitchen, followed by the cook Of the school, In his
white apron, jacket and cap, and carrying pan
cake. On arrival at the schOolroom door he an
nounces himself "the cook" and having entered
the scho0room he advances to the bar which sepa-
rates the upper school from the lower one, twirs
the pancake in the pan and then losses 1t the
bar into the upper school, among crowd OF boys
who scramble for the pancake, and he who is able
to capture it unbroken and carries it to the
deanery demands the hOnOrarum Of q guinea
from the abbey funds, though the GUS
tom Is not mentioned In the abbey stat
utes The cook receives two guineas for his
part of the performance Even during the present
century the sport of "throwing at cocks' was
much in vogue in England, at Shrovetide. An
unhappy rooster was tied to stake by stout
cord and reckless young men and boys having no
fear of the penalties which in these days would
be meted out to them at the hands of humane
societies, would ''shy" sticks at the poor bird
until death ended its sufferings. This favorite
pastime has now degenerated into "Aunt Sally"
and even the practice Of children going shroving--
ia est singing from house to house in the hope OF
receiving presents of cakes ana fruirs-has only
existence In some Of the smaller hamets and con-
setvative villages in 1.-THE shires."
Ash Wednesday derives its name from the nota-
BILE ceremony Of the day in the Roman Catholic
Church. In order. to remind the faithful at the
commencement of the great penitential season
that they were but Gust and ashes the priests took
a quantity OF ashes, which they. blessed and
sprinkled with holy water The ashes used were
generally made from the palms cOnsecrated on the
Palm Sunday of the preceding year. Upon COM
municant attired in sackclot6, approaching, the
priest dipped up some OF the ashes ON the ends of
his fingers, made the mark OF a cross on the w0r-
shippers forehead, and said, "Ae'nento, homo,
does not seem to have been observed by any par.
tcular junketings, even in the olden time, and at
the present period religious ceremonies and fast
ings are all that proclaim IL different from others
OF the week.
There will be services in most of the Protestant
churches in New York and Brooklyn tomorrow and
during the Lenten season.
The Lenten feasts are movable, and Ash We'd
nesday this year falls on February 20, and forty
days after, on April Easter Sunday occurs. Mardi
Gras is among the French people an equivalent Tor
which has many French customs. the AIardi Gras,
or Shrove Tuesday festival, is one OF hiarlty
and gayety previous to the clothing in sack.
gas, huge OK, decorated with ribbons
the oouclerie, and so strong is hereditary GUS
tom that the same thing occurs in New Orleans
ancient blood and faith on the American Continent.
Mi-Careme is another French festival which occurs
In in, .Mid-Lent, and is In tact, the equivalent Tor
less alike; and the French Mi-Careme represented
BY the English ''Mothering Sunday" or fourth
sunday In Lent. People who went out to service
or apprenticeship, or to be bound out as appren-
tices In the elden time, necessarily deprived
of the fond care Of parents and relations, occa-
stoned by their absence; and, consequently when
''Md-Lent s'unday'' or the fourth Sunday came
or oven daughter to travel fifty or even hundred
miles with some trinket or CAKE or swee tmeat. or
some other OF the tokens OF three, four and five
hundred years ago, as pledge OF remembrance to
fond mother, VINO had been separated for 4 full
twevemontn. This act Of duty was called going
dish of food, which gladdened the domestic HEARTH
and made the wanderer glad. 1t was called
'furmety," and consisted of wheat grains boiled in
sugar and milk and spiced, a dish somewhat SINH
lar 10 the Irish stirab0ut In the northern part OF
England and Scotland they had for "Mothering
Sunday" dish STEPPED peas fried in butter with
pepper and salt. Pancakes were called " earnings"
$50 years ago, and this gave rise to the name of
earring Sunday" applied to the fourth Sunday in
Up to this day custom retains in Herefordshire
and Shropshire, in England, which is Us Old as the
10 nraC do 4 ha tyronf Of
Magma Charta. At Easter "simnel cakes" are
made and eaten. They are rich and expensive
sufficient saffron to give them deep color, and
the interior OF the cake-the surface and crcum-
large New Years or wedding cake Of. the present
day-is filled with the materials Of very rich plum
cake, with plenty OF ,candied lemon cake and other
in a cloth and boiled for several hours,
alter which they are brushed over with
sale the crust is as hard as if made
OF wood, circumstance which has given rise to
various stories OF the manner in which they have
been treated by persons TO whom they were sent
as presents and who had never seen them before,
one ordering his smnel' to be boiled to soften it,
very costly and sell for as much as pound, and
others can be had as low as half crown. The
sindnei,uS or siainetl,ts, and is undoubtedly de-
rived from the classic Latin OF straila, ''ne nOur.n
For the use OF the faithful we publish the regula
tons for fasting and abstinence during Lent in the
Roman Catholic diocese OF New York, together
with the evenings on which services are held in
the churches of that iaith:-
All the week days OF Lent, from Ash Wednesday till
Easter Sunday are fast days of precept on meal.
with the allowance OF moderate collation. in the
ing
The precept of fasting implies also that of abstinence
from the use of flesh meat But by dspcnsatIon, the
OF flesh meat IS allowed in this diocese the prnci
pal meal on Mondays Tuesdays and Thursdays OF Lent
with the exception OF Holy Thursday.
g. There Is neither fast abstinence to be observed
on Sundays OF Lent
L. 1t not allowed to fish with flesh meat at the
same meal in Lent
s. There prohibition to eggs, butter cheese
provided the rules OF quantity prescribed by the fast be
complied with.
The Church excuses from the obligation OF fasting
but not abstinence from flesh meat except In special
of sickness the kethc following classes per-
sons-First the infrm second, those whose duties
exhausng laborious character; third persons
who attaining their growth; fourth women in preg
nancy nursing nfants htth those who enteeblcd
by Old age
The public religious exercises during Lent in the