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Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras is also called Pancake Day.
It is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent, and it is the
last opportunity to use up meat, fat, eggs, and dairy products before
the Lenten fast.
Making pancakes is a nice way of using some of these ingredients. The best-known Shrove Tuesday
celebration is the Pancake Day Race at Olney in Buckinghamshire in
England, that has been held since 1445.
It seems that the origin of this tradition is the story of a woman who
was cooking pancakes when she heard the shriving bell summoning her to
confession. She ran to the church wearing her apron and still holding
her frying pan.
This started a tradition of the Pancake Day Race, which now has been
organized for more than 500 years. Nowadays pancake races are organized
in many places, villages and towns. It can be a
nice idea to organize a race at school for boys and girls, though
explaining that the "real" races are for women only!
Participant shall wear a dress (no trousers are allowed!), an apron and
a hat or scarf. Each shall bear a frying pan with a hot pancake. They
must flip the pancake three times during the race. The winner is the
first woman to reach the church.
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