Pancake Tuesday: How Mumbai’s Catholic community is giving a colourful twist
Updated On: 13 February, 2024 09:30 AM IST | Mumbai | Nascimento Pinto
Today is popularly celebrated as Pancake Tuesday by Catholics in Mumbai, and around the world. It is observed a day before Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday, to finish all the eggs and fats in the home, before the period of fasting
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Every year, Mumbai`s Catholics including the Goan, Mangalorean and East Indian communities make pancakes for Pancake Tuesday before Ash Wednesday that marks the period of Lent before Easter. Photos Courtesy: Jeanelle Rodrigues/Dinelle Lobo/Krislyn Gomes
Bandra-based Gazella Thomas remembers how she used to look forward to Shrove Tuesday, more popularly called Pancake Tuesday in Mumbai, long before it was coming simply because of the delicious pancakes. While the plan used to be to enjoy them again after Easter, the time would never come, she shares. “The delicious experience of savouring each pancake was gone too fast for just a single Tuesday. The next day you looked at those pancakes in the fridge with a spirit of self-control marking the season of Lent and you wish you had more time,” Thomas shares the sentiment of every other member of the Catholic community in Mumbai around her as they observe Pancake Tuesday today.
Thomas found a way out of it because she just couldn’t resist waiting for them for so long. “So, it was decided that we savour the pancakes starting a week earlier so that we can enjoy them for a full week before we start Lent,” she adds. 
Gazella Thomas says enjoying the pancakes only on Pancake Tuesday was never enough so her family used to start a week before. Photo Courtesy: Gazella Thomas
Marking the start of Lent
Every year, the Catholic community in Mumbai celebrates Pancake Tuesday to mark the start of Lent, the period during which followers of Christianity fast till Good Friday before celebrating Easter, which falls on March 31 this year. As the story goes, pancakes were made on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, being celebrated on February 14 this year, to finish up all the rich foods such as eggs, milk and sugar, and fats in the house before the fasting period. The tradition has continued to this day as members from the Goan, Mangalorean and East Indian communities make their versions of the pancakes, which are mostly the same except for the inclusion and exclusion of a few ingredients, which is what makes their pancakes unique from the other. The traditional recipe includes making a batter with eggs, milk and flour, which is poured on to the pan and fried lightly, before rolling it in a mixture of coconut and jaggery.
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