The custom of eating pancakes in February has very ancient roots. During the Roman festival of Fornacalia ('Feast of the Ovens') sweet flatbreads called 'Alita Dolcia' were eaten & sacrificed. In Christian times, the pancake is associated with absolution before Lent. Enjoy Shrove Tuesday.

It is Shrove Tuesday - from the word ‘Shrive’ - meaning to obtain forgiveness by way of Confession and penance. Traditionally pancakes were eaten on this day as a sign of absolution (being 'the food of angels') and to rid the house of dairy & sugar before the Lenten fast.

St Valentine's Tomb - Whitefriar Church, Dublin.

Gifted by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836, the casket contains Saint Valentine's bones and a vessel tinged with his blood.

The shrine of St Valentine in Dublin - On Valentines Day it's popular for engaged couples to attend Mass here and to receive a blessing of rings beside his relics.

The Claddagh ring is a traditional faith ring that's given in Ireland for engagement or friendship. Originating in the fishing villages of Galway, its 'giving heart' symbolises love and fellowship, and the crown, loyalty.

The enjoining of hands around symbols of fertility is impressed deeply in the Irish psyche. Whether it's the modern heart or ancient cord.

'Meeting On The Turret Stairs' - Frederic William Burton, 1864

#ValentinesDay

Mother and children drawing water from a holy well in northern Ireland, 1888.

Playtime at a country school, Co Monaghan, Ireland. 1900.

School in Connemara, Co Galway, 1892 - These children are being shown Froebel’s “first gift", a ball on a string. Froebel’s gifts were coloured shapes designed to teach children through touch and play