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The Shrove Tuesday Pancake Procession is a unique East Lansing tradition that dates back to the late 19th century, when Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) was growing, causing the settlement of faculty, staff, and students in the new town of Collegeville, adjacent to the north end of the university grounds.
The procession is now based at All Saints Episcopal Church in the historic Bailey neighbourhood seven blocks north of the student union.
Following the Shrove Tuesday Solemn Evensong, the solemn procession forms at the head of the aisle, and the sacred ministers are supplied with their birettas. The celebrant also receives a large platter of steaming-hot buttermilk pancakes; the deacon and subdeacon take up large pitchers of Michigan maple syrup. Acolytes with large forks and spatulas attend the sacred ministers. Following the deacon's versicle and the people's response, the thurifer leads the procession through the nave and narthex and down the steps to the undercroft, where a station is made at the kitchen. The choir accompany the procession with appropriate antiphons, responsories, and plainsong hymns, such as the Corpus Christi introit, Cibavit eos: "He fed them also with the finest wheat flour, and with honey from the rock." Naturally, in the early days of the procession's history, these words were taken quite literally, and the pancakes were made of whole wheat and served with pure Michigan honey. Tastes these days being what they are, adjustments have been made, but the symbolism still obtains.
After the station at the kitchen door, the procession moves back upstairs to the Grove Street entrance and turns left, encircling the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Greater Lansing, next door, as a gesture of hospitality and ecumenism. Traditionally, the UU minister joins the procession dressed in a simple cassock-alb and bearing a large bowl of flower petals gathered by UU parishioners; these are added to the pancake plates as a lovely garnish and a reminder of the oneness of creation with Creator. (A secondary but salutary effect of the procession in the early years was the reconciliation of the neighboring Episcopal and UU churches following the previous year's Trinity Sunday outdoor solemn procession, which had encircled the UU church three times to the increasing outrage of the UU minister and congregation. The Trinity procession route was subsequently changed to encircle the historic Beaumont Tower on the university campus, during which the university carillonneur traditionally performs Anglican hymns in 3/8 or 3/4 meter, ending with three sets of three tolls on the three largest bells).
The procession moves south from the UU church down Grove Street past the rectory, where a station is made and the antiphon Sacerdotes Domini chanted, and then past the first block of fraternity houses, where students have been lining the streets to depths of four and five persons since before noon. By now the pancake plates and syrup pitchers have been replenished by the vergers from supplies driven ahead of the procession by the sextons. The students wear no particular traditional garb when they are served the pancakes, except that shirts and shoes are required in addition to the usual shorts or jeans. Hats are expected to be removed while the pancake platter is in one's block of residence.
The procession then makes a one-block turn to the west and then heads south on Abbott Road, the main street into the university and the location of City Hall and further blocks of fraternities and sororities. The culmination of the procession is the arrival at the West Circle Halls of Residence, a lovely group of three-storey Tudor-style halls, each with a large dining-room. On this night alone out of all the nights of the year, the dining-rooms are closed in observance of the solemn pancake procession. The waiting students are served efficiently as the procession reaches the university test kitchen at Williams Hall, where nutritionists receive samples of the pancakes for chemical analysis and testing and the eventual assignment of a rating for that year's batch. Finally, having given up the pancake-serving utensils, the sacred ministers, vergers, acolytes, and servers proceed to the Alumni Memorial Chapel not on foot, but on the Sigma Chi homecoming float flatbed, its permanently installed Liberty Bell replica ringing all the way, and all enter the chapel for the Solemn Te Deum and Benediction.
(continued on next page)
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