It is that most blessed breakfast food day of the year, National Pancake Day!
To be fair, it’s also Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, and Shrove Tuesday, but none of those deal with pancakes!
The annual Pancake Day Race between the people of Liberal, KS, and Olney, England, begins this morning at 11:55 a.m., as is tradition. The story, if you’re unfamiliar, starts long, long ago, in the 1400s. The myth goes that a woman trying to use the last of her cooking fats before Lent and had to go to the shriving service, so she ran the 415 yards to the church, skillet, pancake, and apron and all. After, it became a bit of a competition between neighbors to see who could make it to the church first.
Liberal got involved over 70 years ago at this point, and the two communities now race to see who is the fastest. The winning time is generally around a minute. Liberal, for the record, really takes Pancake Day seriously, as it’s now become a four-day event.
Now I want pancakes.
