LONDON — Racers dressed as a skyscraper, beekeeper and a chest of drawers had been amongst dozens of runners in zany costumes zipping round a central London sq. with a frying pan in hand to have a good time Shrove Tuesday, or “Pancake Day.”
A whole lot of individuals packed into Guildhall Yard, cheering as members within the annual Inter-Livery Pancake Race ran across the sq. whereas tossing pancakes of their frying pans.
The spectacle was one in all many such pancake races throughout the U.Ok. to mark the day earlier than the beginning of Lent, the 40-day interval earlier than Easter that Christians mark with prayers, fasting and repentance. Celebrated as Mardi Gras, or Fats Tuesday, in different elements of the world, the identify Shrove Tuesday derives from the English phrase that means to hunt forgiveness or be granted absolution.
The oldest and most well-known of pancake races happen within the small city of Olney, England, which legend has it held its first run in 1445.
As of late most individuals mark Shrove Tuesday by cooking pancakes in a nod to the customized of utilizing up eggs and butter earlier than the interval of abstinence begins.
The Inter-Livery race featured groups donning fancy costume or conventional garb that signify their livery firms — historic guilds or commerce associations which have existed in London for nearly 1,000 years.
The corporate of gunmakers fired the beginning gun, the clockmakers timed the races, whereas the “fruiterers” offered the lemons to go together with the pancakes on sale from stands on the sq..
Winners obtain a trophy — in addition to a frying pan.
