For these young people, being called ‘two faced’ is a compliment! As they made traditional masks as well as having traditional food to celebrate Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday.
Families ate Polish doughnuts and English pancakes among other tasty snacks to commemorate the start of Lent.
The Halton Borough Council supported event was held at St John’s Church Hall, in Widnes, on Wednesday.
The custom of wearing masked is still adhered to in parts of Denmark, Lithuania, Italy, The USA and France.
The idea is wearing masks makes us all equal. Whenen wearing a mask you can’t tell who is a king, a pauper a doctor or a road sweeper so we are all on the same level.
The event included plenty of doughnuts as it fell the day before at Thursday, (Tlusty Czwartek in Polish), the Thursday before Ash Wednesday The day Poles forget about their diet and eat huge quantities of doughnuts (paczki-pronounced pounchki).
Children who originate from Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Syria attended and enjoyed the event.
The International Family Club – Rainbow Umbrella – meets once a month on Wednesday evenings, from 4 30pm to 6 30pm. at St John’s Church Hall, near Victoria Park.
Cllr Keith Morley, who has always supported the group and has recently become it’s chairman, said: “We are always looking for more members. It is a very welcoming group and families from originate from anywhere and now live in Halton can attend. “
In the regular meetings, families of different nationalities, mostly from Poland, also from Turkey and Slovakia, living in Halton meet up: the children play together or do arts and crafts with Halton Borough Council Children’s Centre staff.
There are also opportunities to discuss useful subjects like healthcare, Brexit and education opportunities.
Rainbow Umbrella Leader Elżbieta (Ela) Orlińska, said: “The meeting was good fun and it was nice some of the children came in fancy dress. i think the adults enjoyed making the masks as much as the children did.”
For more info. email: umbrellahalton@outlook.com or log onto www.facebook.com/Umbrella-Halton, www.facebook.com/teczowyparasol
The next meeting is on Wednesday, 27t March at 4 30pm Mothering Sunday celebration.
* The name Shrove comes from the old middle English word ‘Shriven’ meaning to go to confession to say sorry for the wrong things you’ve done.
* Lent always starts on a Wednesday, so people went to confessions on the day before. This became known as Shriven Tuesday and then Shrove Tuesday.
* The other name for this day, Pancake Day, comes from the old English custom of using up all the fattening ingredients in the house before Lent, so that people were ready to fast during Lent.
* The fattening ingredients that most people had in their houses in those days were eggs and milk. A very simple recipe to use up these ingredients was to combine them with some flour and make pancakes!
* Traditionally, Mardi Gras masks contain three colors: gold, green and purple.: Gold signifies power, green equals faith and purple represents justice.