Manchester Cathedral Choristers celebrate Shrove Tuesday

Manchester Cathedral Choristers took time out of rehearsals to engage in some pancake fun! To mark Shrove Tuesday, choristers, aged 8 to 13 years old, robed up in their cassocks to flip pancakes in the Cathedral grounds.

Shrove Tuesday marks the last day before Lent, which begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday and starts 40 days of fasting and prayer before Good Friday and the Easter weekend. Traditionally, households would eat pancakes as a way of using up stocks of milk, butter and eggs which were forbidden during the abstinence of Lent.

Ash Wednesday will be marked with a Sung Eucharist and Imposition of Ashes at 5.30pm; this will include ‘Miserere’ by Gregorio Allegri and William Byrd’s evocative ‘Mass for Five Voices’.

Manchester Cathedral Choir has places available for Choristers, both day and boarding. Auditions are held throughout the year and applications are welcomed from anyone between the ages of 7 and 10. For an informal chat to find out more or to arrange a preliminary informal audition, please view the website.