Pancake Tuesday

miniature pancakes
© F H Powell 2010

Also known as Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday or Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday falls on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. As Ash Wednesday is determined by Easter in the Christian calendar, which is a moveable date, it follows that Shrove Tuesday is also not fixed to a single date each year.

The practice of making pancakes comes from the need to use up eggs milk and sugar in readiness for the fasting of Lent. A number of traditional games and competitions are held on Pancake Day, most notably village or mob football for the men and pancake racing for the ladies though each is not exclusive to either sex! The tradition in the UK can be dated back to the mid 15th century, with a modern (since 1950) international competition held between Liberal, Kansas and Olney Buckinghamshire.

Village pancake races are held over varying lengths of course and with no rules on the number of participants. Broadly the rules are that the winner is the one who completes the course whilst still having the pancake in the frying pan having flipped or tossed it en route. Generally there are no rules on how many times the pancake has to be tossed which often leads to a race based on speed rather than finesse.

If you wish to add a frying pan (with maybe a pancake) or just pancakes to your dolls house, then look no further than our web shop