A fun tradition from the cartoon: There is a day of the year when the Dutch put pancakes on their heads
Pancakes are cooked and loved in many countries around the world. There are also very interesting traditions associated with this dish.
Every year on November 29, many people in the Netherlands put a pancake on their head and tell a legend about monks and an angel holding a golden pan. "We wish you a happy and blessed Holy Pancake (Sint Pannekoek)," the Dutch say as soon as the edible hat is on your head," News Bytes writes.
This tradition first appeared in 1986 in a cartoon by Dutch cartoonist Jan Kruis. The story says that a father returns home in the evening and, to his surprise, notices that his whole family is celebrating a fictional holiday called Sint Pannekoek with pancakes on their heads.
Angel with a golden frying pan
As Sint Pannekoek gained popularity in the Netherlands, Kruis expanded and explained it in another comic strip called The Gospel of Sint Pannekoek. In it, he tells the story of 12th-century monks who celebrate the birthday of a young monk by eating pancakes.
They have a strange tradition: if the old abbot gets cold, the young monk puts his pancake on his head. Then an angel comes down from heaven carrying a golden frying pan. She flips the pancake onto the young monk's head. Seeing this, the other monks exclaim, "The Lord has done a miracle for us! There is a saint among us!" and put the pancakes on their heads.
People put pancakes on their heads and say, "Sint Pannekoek."
The popular artwork has turned Sint Pannekoek into a tradition and celebration in the Netherlands, where people make fresh pancakes and place them on their heads. People often post photos of pancakes on social media.
Shrovetide holiday before Lent
There are other pancake-related traditions and holidays in the world. One of them is Shrovetide, which is celebrated by Christians. On this day, people enjoy a traditional feast before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. It is believed that on this day, Anglo-Saxon Christians went to confession and received "absolution."
