Whether you call it “Mardi Gras, Paczki Day, Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day”…they are all celebrated on the day before Lent. Celebrated to indulge before 40 days of fasting…and to use up any food that could not be eaten during the 40 days.
What is the difference between Pancake Day and Shrove Tuesday?
Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent – the 40 days leading up to Easter – was traditionally a time of fasting and on Shrove Tuesday, Anglo-Saxon Christians went to confession and were “shriven” (absolved from their sins).
Pancake Race: The tradition is said to have originated in 1445 when a housewife from Olney, Buckinghamshire, was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time until she heard the church bells ringing for the service. In her haste, she ran in her apron, still holding the frying pan…flipping the pancakes on the way so that they wouldn’t burn.
Our Pancake Race was held in the Fireside Room, 3 ‘housewives’ wore aprons, had their pancakes in their frying pans…every quarter of the room they had to stop, flip the pancake, and continue to the next quarter…until they made it all the way around the Fireside Room (4 flips)