Q. 1. What is the Catholic meaning of "Shrovetide?"

A. 1. The word "Shrovetide" is the English equivalent of what is known in the greater part of Southern Europe as the "Carnival" (of a week duration). "Shrove Tuesday" is the last day of what traditionally was called "Shrovetide," the week preceding the beginning of Lent.

Having its root in the term "to shrive" (when Christians went to confession and were “shriven” - absolved from their sins) it refers to the "taking away of the flesh" [meatless days] which marks the beginning of Lent.

On the last day of the Carnival, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, also known as "Pancake Tuesday," the faithful would eat pancakes because of the need to use up the eggs and fat which were, originally at least, prohibited articles of diet during the forty days of Lent.