美国国家公共电台 NPR The British Celebrate Pancake Day With Sweet Races

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

It's Shrove Tuesday on the Christian 1 calendar, the last day to indulge before the beginning of Lent. So in New Orleans, people are celebrating Mardi Gras. In Brazil and elsewhere, it's Carnival 2. The British do things differently. In the United Kingdom, people are racing 3 around with frying pans, flipping 5 pancakes. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from London on the ancient and colorful traditions of Pancake Day.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Three, two, one - go.

FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE 6: And they're off.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Unintelligible). Oh, that James Landau - he's got some speed on him, hasn't he?

LANGFITT: Oh, my gosh, somebody's already dropped a pancake.

Teams from Parliament and the House of Lords took on national media this morning in a relay race around a garden along the Thames. They flipped 7 pancakes as they ran, all to raise money for rehab, a health charity that helps people with brain injuries. That worthy 8 cause, though, did not hinder the race's traditional shoving and cheating. Member of Parliament Liz McInnes said the Upper House took the brunt of it last time around.

LIZ MCINNES: There were lords on the floor last year. I was running over lords who'd fallen over.

LANGFITT: Really?

MCINNES: (Laughter).

LANGFITT: People do crash.

MCINNES: Oh, yeah, yeah.

LANGFITT: Really?

MCINNES: Yeah, yeah. I stopped to pick my pancake up last year, which was a mistake. Never pick it up if you drop it.

LANGFITT: Is it cheating to carry an extra pancake?

MCINNES: No, no, that's part of our tactics.

LANGFITT: Are there no rules?

MCINNES: Any rules are made to be broken I think.

LANGFITT: The race has more civilized 9 routes. Story goes that a woman lost track of time while cooking pancakes on Shrove Tuesday back in 1445. When she heard the church bells ring, she rushed out the door still holding her frying pan. Some of today's racers grew up with this tradition, including Tim Loughton, an MP with the Tory Party and the son of a minister.

TIM LOUGHTON: We used to do it at school. My father was a vicar, so Pancake Day and so Easter and the build up to it - to that was always a big thing for us. So yeah, pancakes are in my blood.

LANGFITT: British racing pancakes bear no resemblance to the fluffy 10 ones Americans eat. The U.K. version is flat and tends to split apart by the third flip 4.

CLIVE LEWIS: And there's a big debate now over what you should have in the pancakes.

LANGFITT: Clive Lewis is a parliamentarian with the Labour Party.

LEWIS: You can have, like, Nutella on it or butterscotch. Back in the day, the tradition is just lemon and sugar. I'm going to go. Look; I've got to go (unintelligible).

LANGFITT: What's your favorite?

LEWIS: Lemon and sugar. I'm a traditionalist (laughter).

LANGFITT: After 10 grueling laps...

And there it is. The MPs won. The MPs have won.

The members of Parliament finished first by a frying pan length. Frank Langfitt, NPR News, London.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PANCAKE DAY")

MAID MARIAN AND HER MERRY MEN: (Singing) It's Pancake Day. Yes, it's Pancake Day. Yes, it's Pancake Day.