Care or Carle Sunday

Care or Carle Sunday, the Sunday before Palm Sunday, said to be so called because it was the practice in many parts of the country to eat gray pease, called carlings, fried in butter, pepper, and salt, on this day. This practice apparently had its more immediate origin in the custom of the Roman Catholic Church of eating hallowed beans fried at this time—these beans being described in some religious books as symbolical of confession; and their steeping before use, of meditation. It appears, however, to have been adopted by the church from a heathen custom.