Today, in kitchens around the country, people will be flipping pancakes in an annual tradition.
The idea of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday has been around for more than 1,000 years.
In the days before people could give up chocolate and crisps, making pancakes was a way of using up rich foods such as eggs, milk and sugar before the fasting season of Lent.
Recipes for pancakes appear in cookery books as far back as the 1400s, and it's believed the tradition of flipping pancakes is almost as old.
In celebration of Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, here are 10 fascinating facts about the age old tradition:
1. The biggest pancake ever made was 15 metres wide and 2.5cm deep. It contained two million calories.
2. The first pancake recipe appeared in an English cookbook in the 15th century.
It is said to have originated in Olney when a housewife was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time. When she heard the church bells ringing for mass she ran out of her house, still carrying her pan and pancake. Olney still has a pancake race every year.
3. The largest number of pancakes tossed in the shortest amount of time is 349 tosses in two minutes, which was achieved by Dean Gould at Felixstowe, Suffolk in 1995.
4. The longest race in the quickest time was held in Melbourne, Australia. Jan Stickland covered 384m in 59.5 seconds on 19 February 1985.
5. On average, people in the UK eat two pancakes each on Pancake Day. That means that 117 million pancakes are eaten on the day.
6. In France it is traditional to touch the handle of the frying pan and make a wish while the pancake is turned, holding a coin in one hand.
7. On Pancake Day in Newfoundland, Canada, people place items in the pancake batter before it is cooked to tell the future for family members.
8. 52 million eggs are consumed in the UK on Pancake Day. That's 22 million more than a normal day.
9. In the olden days, cooks would use snow in their pancakes as it made them soft and fluffy in texture.
10. Pancake Tuesday is known as Carnivale in Italy which comes from the Latin for ‘goodbye to the flesh’.
