The 40-day Christian season of Lent is a time of fasting, when dairy, amongst other foods, becomes forbidden.

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Historically, would-be fasters disposed of forbidden foods, such as eggs and sugar, before Lent began in order to avoid temptation. Pancakes and doughnuts became the perfect way to both use up the forbidden foodstuffs and enjoy one last final fling with gluttony. Thus, Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, came to also be known as Pancake Day.

Although the holiday holds these religious origins, many people today enjoy it in its own right. Thus, it has become a good excuse to make and eat pancakes, have pancake-tossing competitions and races, which often raise funds for charitable causes.

Pancake Day is celebrated in many countries, including America, the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia. The French name for Shrove Tuesday is Mardi Gras, which literally means "Fat Tuesday", presumably an ode to the richly delicious, fat-laden crepes enjoyed on the day. Mardi Gras has now become synonymous with decadence and debauchery the world over, through its subsequent association with the large-scale carnivals held everywhere from Rio de Janeiro to New Orleans.

The French have other unique traditions surrounding the day, including children wearing masks as they demand pancakes and fritters. In Province, a superstition dictates that if you hold a coin in your left hand while tossing a pancake you’ll become wealthy. In Brie, the first pancake made is always given to the hen that laid the eggs for the dish, and it’s regarded as bad luck to let a pancake fall on the floor while tossing it.

Across the straight in the UK, pancake races are particularly popular, making strangely common the sight of large numbers of people racing down streets tossing pancakes. Arguably the most well known of these events is the Pancake Day Race held at Olney in Buckingshire England since 1445.

An unlikely sounding legend has it that a woman was cooking pancakes on Shrove Tuesday when she heard the chiming of bells calling her to church. Not wishing to be late, she ran to church with her apron on and the fry pan still in her hand, thus launching a now 500-year-old tradition. Only women may participate in the race, which ends at a local church, and they must run with a hot pancake in a fry pan flipping it at least three times during the race. The woman who reaches the church first serves the pancake to the bell ringer and receives a kiss in return, known as the “kiss of peace”.

Also in England on Pancake Day, at Westminster School in London students are led into the playground to compete in the school’s Annual Pancake Grease. The school’s cook tosses a giant pancake over a high bar and the boys race to catch a piece. The student who nabs the largest slice of the pancake pie is awarded a cash gift from the Dean.

Pancake tossing is another event that’s become virtually ritualised in the festivities of many places. In 1997, Ralf Laue from Leipzig, Germany, broke the world record by tossing a pancake 416 times in two minutes. Other world-beating pancake accomplishments have included the making of the world’s largest-ever pancake in Rochdale, England in 1994. The oversized sweet treat weighed in at three tones, measured a whopping 15-metres in diameter, and contained an estimated two million calories.

Pancake Day
Pancake Day celebrations and fundraising events are held throughout Australia every year. Uniting Care, a charitable organisation run by the Uniting Church, organises Pancake Day events nationwide. Hundreds of individuals, schools, community organisations, churches and businesses participate by cooking and selling pancakes to raise money for Uniting Care’s work with Australians in need.

Visit Uniting Care's Pancake Day website.