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Pancake day
Introduction
This assembly was added to the Barnabas in Schools website after Maggie
Chiverton, from Christ Church Chineham had used it successfully in her local
school.
Preparation
You’ll need the song ‘Great great brill brill’, frying pan, pancake, ‘Change
bag’ – a bag containing 2 identical cloths, permanent marker
Development
Play ‘Great great brill brill’
Ask: Do you know what day it is tomorrow? Will you be eating anything special?
It’s Pancake day!
What do you like to have on the top of your pancakes?
What is the other name for this day?
Shrove Tuesday is a cheerful celebration because it means that winter is
nearly over and warmer days are just around the corner. It is a time when
Christians say sorry for all the things they have done wrong before the start of
Lent
Does any one know anything about Lent?
It marks the period of 40 days before Easter. In this time we think about
Jesus, now he has grown up (no longer the baby we met at Christmas). Aged 30 and
at the start of doing the work that God wanted him to do, he went into the
desert for 40 days and 40 nights. In all that time Jesus did not have any food
to eat. How many of you come home at teatime saying ‘I’m starving’ even though
you had lunch a few hours earlier – and probably a biscuit in between lunch and
tea!
To remember Jesus going without food, Christians have traditionally made Lent
a time of fasting, of going without. A lot of people give something up for Lent.
Do you know anyone who has? Perhaps you have? Chocolate is a favourite thing
to give up nowadays. Traditionally, it was eggs, butter, milk and meat.
So where do pancakes come in? Well for generations, the English have
celebrated Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, with enormous quantities of
pancakes. In fact, these fried flat cakes became so important to marking the
start of Lent that it became known as Pancake Day, or Pancake Tuesday. Pancakes
used up eggs, milk, butter and fats, which could not be eaten in Lent. They were
simple to make, and were popular with everybody.
During Lent Christians prepare their hearts and minds for Easter. One of the
ways they do this is thinking of the ways they have let God down by forgetting
him or doing bad things that don’t show his love. Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday,
Shrove means to say sorry for all the things you have done, of realising that it
was because of all the bad things we had done that God sent Jesus to forgive us.
However saying sorry is not enough if you then go and do the same thing again
– and again – the next minute or the next day. Have you ever had a fight with
your brother, said sorry when you hurt him, and then hit him again 5 minutes
later? I think it means you weren’t really sorry the first time. So I want you
to think about something you do that keeps on getting you in trouble. It could
be fighting with your brothers or sisters, not keeping your room tidy, talking
to your friends when you should be listening to your teachers, or anything.
Whatever it is I want you to think about giving that thing up for Lent and
beyond and truly saying sorry.
I have got a special bag here, which will show us how God forgives us. I need
someone to come up and help me. Can you reach in the bag and get out what is
inside?
Get out cloth and permanent marker. Ask for people to call out things to say
sorry for and write them on the cloth,
Say ‘Look at this cloth, it is all horrible and full of sad things we want to
say sorry for.’
Get the volunteer to put it back in the bag and go and sit down.
‘But if we say sorry to God he forgives us because of Jesus.’
Get another volunteer to come up and reach in the bag.
Take out the changed cloth.
‘That was a trick but God’s forgiveness is real.’
I am going to say a very simple prayer and I am going to leave a moment of
quiet at the end in case you want to add your own sorry and then if you agree
you can join with me and say amen together.
I’m sorry when I’m unkind and when I forget to say thank you,
I’m sorry when I don’t take care of my toys or when I don’t want to share them.
I’m sorry for sometimes being naughty and then pretending it wasn’t me.
I’m sorry for not being careful and for sulking at bedtime.
I’m sorry when I forget that you love me all the time.
(pause)
Thank you that when we say sorry you will forgive us because of Jesus. Amen.
This cloth was dirty and full of all the wrong things we have done and now it
is completely clean. And the wonderful thing that Christians believe is that
when you say sorry to God he will forgive you because of Jesus and forget all
about the wrong things you have done in the past. And that is what Shrove
Tuesday is all about. I hope you remember it when you are eating your pancakes
tomorrow.
And because of this we can celebrate how great it is to have a friend like
Jesus who made all this possible.
We are going to sing a song, which says that.
Sing ‘Great great brill brill’
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