Shrove Tuesday

Also known as  "Pancake Day", "Fat Tuesday" and "Mardi Gras,"  Shrove Tuesday  always falls on the Tuesday before  Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent in the Christian faith. Dates vary from year to year,  but it usually falls in February, sometimes early March. In 2012 it falls on 21st February.

It is the day of preparation for Lent, when the eating pancakes was made obvious by the need to up the eggs and fat, the eating of which were prohibited during the forty days of Lent. 

Pancake races
 

Holding Pancake races is a tradition in the UK which dates back at least to the 1400s and are practiced in villages and towns throughout the country. It is thought to have originated when a housewife heard the church bells ringing for service whilst in the process of making her pancakes, so she ran out of the house still carrying her frying pan and pancake.

Nowadays, contestants have to carry a frying pan, complete with pancake, and race to the finishing line tossing the pancake a number of times throughout the race.  The winner is the one who gets to the end first having constantly tossed their pancake.

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Dates

Because Shrove Tuesday is directly linked to Easter, the date varies from year to year.  Easter Day is usually the first Sunday after the full moon that falls on or just after Spring Equinox and can therefore occur on any date between 22nd March and April end.  It's all a little complicated, so below are the dates of Shrove Tuesday from 2008 to 2050.