Pancake Day traditions

As many of you will know, tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Day. To begin this blog, I thought you may like to know about some Shrove Tuesday traditions from around Britain and Ireland. Pancake Day falls 47 days before Easter, which is why it is later than normal this year.

An article by the Daily Record suggests that in Scotland, it is also known as Bannock Night. Historically, Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity for people to use their eggs and fats before Lent. Bannocks, a type of flatbread made from flour, were the ideal dishes to utilise these ingredients. The Lenten version of bannocks were made using oatmeal, eggs, milk and beef stock. It was also considered good luck to consume beef, as it would lead to prosperity for your cattle. Another Bannock Night tradition was the pouring of bannock batter. One person would pour the batter onto the griddle, another would flip the pancake, and a third would remove them when ready.

In Ireland, one custom was that any holly left over from Christmas should be saved for the fire to make the pancakes. More worryingly, in 19th century southern Ireland, the week of pancake day was used for insulting unmarried people. On "Chalk Sunday" singletons could be marked with chalk or tar on their clothing and older spinsters might have salt thrown over them to preserve them for another year. Worse still, in the Munster province, single people were sometimes herded around the streets or even thrown into ponds.

Meanwhile in Wales, one of the stranger traditions was to bury an eggless chicken up to its neck for blindfolded locals to attempt to hit the chicken's head. The first person to succeed would get to keep the chicken and eat it the following day! Another tradition was for tin cans to be kicked down the street - this was symbolism for putting away cooking untensils for Lent.

Finally, in England, some villages still practice the traditional pancake race. This involves running along a set course, holding a pan and flipping a pancake as you run. The village of Olney in Buckinghamshire is one place which has a pancake race every year - which is reportedly the oldest in the world, dating from 1445. They have a friendly competition with the town of Liberal in Kansas, USA in which the winning times are recorded. A video call is held for prizes to be given. The Americans are currently winning 39-31 historically so let's hope the ladies of Olney can triumph this year.