Why we're pancake-flipping crazy

by Steve Cunningham< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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ON 27 February, Britain goes flipping crazy. And it's all a bit of a mystery to foreigners. For this is Pancake Day, an almost-baffling festival that has its roots in deep religious observance.

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Pancake Day is always on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. Some people refer to it as Fat Tuesday. Americans know it as Mardi Gras.

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It is a centuries-old traditional holiday of pre-Lent indulgence, a time to fill up on sweets and other rich foods that many Christians give up until Easter (when children make themselves feel utterly sick with chocolate eggs).

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On Shrove Tuesday, the French eat crepes made with eggs, butter and cream. Waffles are popular in the Netherlands and the Russians eat blini served dripping with melted butter.

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The English use a similar recipe to the French, pancakes, usually served with lemon and sugar.

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In Old England it was customary for the housewives to drop whatever they were doing and hurry to the church at the tolling of the bell to be shriven - forgiven - for their sins.

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��Press Association

Olney race, 1953

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Not wishing to leave her pancakes to burn, she hurried to the 'shriving', carrying her pan and its contents with her.

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This led to the annual sporting event in England run over 415 yards from the town pump to the church� and it has also crept over to the States, particularly in the town of Liberal, Kansas.

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An American soldier based in Britain in the Second World War heard of this strange race from an English comrade and told his folk back in Kansas. The event took off in 1950 as the International Pancake Day Race when the Rev Ronald Collins, Vicar of Olney, issued a transatlantic challenge.

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The race is run in both towns and times of the winners in both Olney and Liberal are compared by transatlantic telephone. Then an international winner is declared.