Here’s how to make sure your Pancake Day goes with a FLIP instead of a FLOP!

The official name for Pancake Day is Shrove Tuesday. It is a Christian celebration held on the day before Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent. This is a period of fasting, when Christians give up things they like, including food.

Many years ago, people would try and use up all the rich ingredients in their cupboards on Shrove Tuesday to prepare for Lent. It would be their last opportunity to eat foods such as eggs, milk and fats. Pancakes were a perfect way to use up these ingredients and so the tradition of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday began.

The name ‘Shrove Tuesday’ comes from the word ‘shrive’ which means to confess your sins. On Shrove Tuesday Christians would go to confession where their sins would be forgiven before Lent began.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday when, traditionally, Christians would rub ash on their foreheads to show God they were sorry for all the things they had done wrong during the past year, and so Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.

As well as eating pancakes, pancake races are also an important part of Shrove Tuesday celebrations. The aim of the race is to toss a cooked pancake in a frying pan whilst trying to be the first to cross the finishing line.

The most famous pancake race has been held in Olney, England, since 1445. A woman was cooking pancakes that year when she heard the church bells calling people to confession. She raced to the church whilst still wearing her apron and holding her frying pan! Since then the women of Olney wear their aprons and flip pancakes whilst racing through the streets on Shrove Tuesday. Each pancake must be tossed three times and cannot be dropped.

Here’s how the competitors could use science to win the race...

Scientists from Leeds University believe this is the perfect equation for flipping a pancake and making sure the pancake lands back in the frying pan:

“The angular velocity of the pancake equals the square root of Pi, times the gravity divided by the distance the pancake is from the elbow times four.”

If you understand the equation you won’t end up with pancake on the ceiling or floor. But if you don’t understand the equation then you should probably try a spatula instead!

Pancakes are eaten all around the world and even in non-Christian countries where they don’t celebrate Pancake Day. The Japanese serve pancakes with minced oysters dipped in chilli sauce and in China, pancakes are stuffed with meat and vegetables.

The French pancake is called a crêpe. It is thin and crispy and often served with sweet or savoury fillings. Blinis are pancakes from Russia that are served with caviar and sour cream or folded over and filled with cream cheese or jam!

Mexico has tortillas, which are like pancakes but they have a bean or meat filling and are topped with tomato sauce.

American pancakes are much thicker than those cooked in Britain and most Americans like their pancakes served with syrup.

Here in Britain, our favourite topping is lemon and sugar. But remember on February 8th this year to toss aside the syrup and sugar and go for some healthier pancake toppings instead, like fresh fruit and natural yogurt.

Pancakes have featured in cookbooks since 1439.

In many parts of the world people believe pancakes bring good luck because over the years they have contained many ingredients associated with money and health.

The French name for Shrove Tuesday is ‘Mardi Gras’ which translates as ‘fat Tuesday’! Mardi Gras is now the name given to many carnivals around the world.

The world’s largest pancake was cooked in Rochdale in 1994. It was 15 metres in diameter and had an estimated 2 million calories!

Ralf Laue holds the world’s pancake tossing record. He flipped a pancake 416 times in just two minutes!

Mike Cuzzacrea, from New York, ran a marathon while continually tossing a pancake for nearly three and a half hours!

Pancake flipping bonkers!