It's Pancake Day!

Some call it "Shrove Tuesday." (The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb shrive ~ in case you thought you might lose sleep over not knowing).

In the United Kingdom and Ireland (for those who follow the Anglican tradition), Shrove Tuesday is often known as Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday. And there are festivities! On Pancake Day, pancake races are held in villages and towns across the United Kingdom. The tradition is said to have originated when a housewife was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time until she heard the church ringing for the service. She raced out of the house to church while still carrying her frying pan and pancake. So today...people are apparently running all over England with frying pans in their hands, tossing pancakes! And how much fun is that!

And yes, it's also known as Fat Tuesday. It's a whole Mardi Gras, let's-eat-as-much-as-we-can-before-Lent kind of thing. In Sweden, I'd be serving semla or fastlagsbulle (a sweet bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream) to my family today. That tradition evantually evolved to eating semla every Tuesday between now and Easter ~ apparently semla is amazingly good! But, sorry kids. You're American born, Mormon Swedes, and we don't do the whole Lent/eat a pastry every Tuesday thing, but I'm not above making pancakes and running up the street with a frying pan. So guess what we're having for dinner?