Pancake Day 2025: When is Shrove Tuesday in the UK, what does it mean, how do people celebrate

Though the exact date varies each year , it is traditionally observed 47 days before Easter Sunday - and therefore falls on March 4 this year.

Pancake Day is traditionally known as Shrove Tuesday, with its origins rooted in the Christian religion. Shrove Tuesday is a day of feasting, which came before a 40-day fast - Lent - which begins the day after, on Ash Wednesday. The date changes each year as it is calculated by the lunar calendar.

So what does ‘shrove’ mean and what does it have to do with pancakes?

According to Timeanddate, the word shrove means being absolved from sin through confession and penance. Shrove comes from the Latin word for “writing” (scribere); the English Church used the word for writing down rules (scrifan) to mean “absolving sinners” (shrive).

Shrove Tuesday is the time for Christians to prepare for absolution by confessing to their priest and by fasting or renouncing comforts for the 40 days of Lent, starting on Ash Wednesday.

In the UK, Shrove Tuesday is known in the UK as Pancake Day, and people celebrate it by eating pancakes or participating in pancake races.

Before the Lenten fasting, people traditionally use up ingredients they are not allowed to eat during the next 40 days, especially ingredients that will spoil, like eggs and milk. A great way to use up these ingredients is making pancakes and waffles. That is how Shrove Tuesday, the last day before Lent, became known as Pancake Day or Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French).

What are Pancake Day traditions?

In Wales, Welsh cakes or light cakes are eaten while pancakes in Gloucester are often made with suet - a hard, white or pink fat made from beef or mutton. There are a number of local customs connected to Pancake Day, such as the annual Pancake Grease where schoolboys would fight for pancakes for money in London’s Westminster or the Pancake Race.

Across the UK, people organise so-called pancake races on Shrove Tuesday. One example is the Olney Pancake Race in Olney, Buckinghamshire: On a 415 yards long course (about 379 meters), participants carry pancakes in a hot frying pan, flipping the pancakes as they run.

The winner is the first one crossing the finish line with a pancake that is not burnt. Participants wear traditional costumes consisting of a skirt, apron, and head covering.