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Crowds cheer as runners with frying pans
race to mark annual Pancake Day
[March 05, 2025]
LONDON (AP) — Racers dressed as a skyscraper, beekeeper and a
chest of drawers were among dozens of runners in zany costumes zipping
around a central London square with a frying pan in hand to celebrate
Shrove Tuesday, or “Pancake Day.”
Hundreds of people packed into Guildhall Yard, cheering as participants
in the annual Inter-Livery Pancake Race ran around the square while
tossing pancakes in their frying pans. |
Runners compete during a traditional pancake race by livery companies at
the Guildhall in London, Tuesday, March 4, 2025.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein) |
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The
spectacle was one of many such pancake races across the U.K. to
mark the day before the start of Lent, the 40-day period before
Easter that Christians mark with prayers, fasting and
repentance. Celebrated as Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, in other
parts of the world, the name Shrove Tuesday derives from the
English word meaning to seek forgiveness or be granted
absolution.
The oldest and most famous of pancake races take place in the
small town of Olney, England, which legend has it held its first
run in 1445.
These days most people mark Shrove Tuesday by cooking pancakes
in a nod to the custom of using up eggs and butter before the
period of abstinence begins.
The Inter-Livery race featured teams donning fancy dress or
traditional garb that represent their livery companies —
historic guilds or trade associations that have existed in
London for almost 1,000 years.
The company of gunmakers fired the starting gun, the clockmakers
timed the races, while the “fruiterers” provided the lemons to
go with the pancakes on sale from stands at the square.
Winners receive a trophy — as well as a frying pan.
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