Origins of Pancake Tuesday

Pancake Day is always celebrated on a Tuesday and is also known as Shrove Tuesday. Pancake Day celebrates the start of the Christian celebration of Lent where Christians give up something for 40 days to empathise with Jesus Christ when he was sent into the wilderness for 40 days and nights and tempted by the devil.
During Lent people would fast, so the day before, Shrove Tuesday, households would use up food items in the house such as sugar, butter, milk and eggs. Pancakes were easily made from these ingredients and provided essential nutrients before the fasting period. Eggs would not be eaten thereafter until Easter. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at Easter, a period of Forty Days.
The first pancake recipe was in a cookbook dating back to the year 1439. The earliest true recipe was recorded in Apicius, a collection of Roman recipes thought to be from the fourth or fifth century AD - it suggests serving them with honey and pepper, which sounds pretty good to me. In fact, you could trace a rather delicious map of the world in pancakes - from Russian buckwheat blinis to can't-be-too-thin French crepes, lacy Indian dosas and fluffy American breakfast pancakes.
As long as you don't stress the batter, treat it tenderly and don't overmix it (particularly if you are adding seasoning) you should be fine.

Pancake Tossing
Flipping your pancakes is part of the tradition, though it's not a skill that comes naturally to us all. Wait until your pancake is cooked on the underside and hold the frying pan loosely in your hand, keeping your wrist very relaxed. Flick your wrist sharply upwards and the pancake should (in theory) land back in the pan.

Mardis Gras
The French name for Shrove Tuesday is "Mardis Gras" (or "Fat Tuesday") and has been assumed by countries all around the world to celebrate pre-Lenten indulgence and decadence. Mardis Gras is celebrated at the world-famous carnivals of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and New Orleans in the USA.

Did You Know?
Napolean considered dropping a pancake while tossing to be bad luck, and used this to explain his troops' failings in Russia.
In Iceland, the day is known as "Sprengidagur" ("bursting day") as on this day people would eat as much of the delicacies that were forbidden during Lent as possible.
The name "Shrove" comes from the archaic English word "Shrive", which means "to confess".