This is when Pancake Day falls in 2021 - and how to make the perfect pancakes

You may be thinking of what to give up for lent – or why the supermarket shelves are now full with hundreds of Easter eggs?

Before you give up chocolate for six weeks, only to indulge in countless quantities of Easter eggs, Pancake Tuesday will be celebrated.

Pancake Tuesday – also known as Shrove Tuesday – falls in mid-February and marks the day before Lent begins.

When is pancake Tuesday?

Pancake Tuesday is on 16 February this year, followed by Ash Wednesday on 17 February, which marks the beginning of lent in the Catholic church.

The day changes every year, according to when lent is.

This is because it always precedes Ash Wednesday, which is exactly six weeks before Easter celebrations begin.

Pancake Tuesday always falls in February or March.

What is the history behind Pancake Tuesday?

Pancake Tuesday is the traditional feast day before Lent begins, and is celebrated across the United Kingdom and parts of the commonwealth.

France and the US celebrate Mardi Gras on this day, as it signifies the end of a six-week carnival season and is also known as ‘Fat Tuesday’.

Its proper name is Shrove Tuesday and it marks the day before Ash Wednesday, when Catholics may begin to abstain from eating meat, eggs and animal produce for 40 days.

Anglo-saxon Catholics would attend confession at their parish church, where they would be ‘shriven’, or forgiven for their sins.

A bell would be rung out for people to attend church, which became known as the pancake bell - as it was rung at noon as a gesture to stop working and begin to prepare your pancakes.

After confession, families would go home to use up any eggs and fats they had before embarking on their lent fast.

The easiest way to use up such produce was to make a pancake-like batter and fry it in fats, as a means of ensuring food did not go to waste.

Why do Catholics fast after Shrove Tuesday?