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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that flips through the pages of history to

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Speaker 1: deliver old news in a new way. I'm Gay Bluesier

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Speaker 1: and in this episode, we're examining the origins of the

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Speaker 1: only intercontinental rivalry to be settled by flipping flapjacks. The

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Speaker 1: day was February one, ninety An international competition was held

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Speaker 1: between an American town and an English town to see

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Speaker 1: who could run a race the fastest while also flipping

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Speaker 1: a pancake. The joint event took place both in the

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Speaker 1: town of Liberal, Kansas in the United States, and in

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Speaker 1: the market town of Only Buckinghamshire in England. In both cases,

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Speaker 1: the pancake race was away for Christian residents to celebrate

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Speaker 1: a religious holiday called Shrove Tuesday. That's the traditional feast

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Speaker 1: day known elsewhere as Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday and Carnival.

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Speaker 1: It's the day before ash Wednesday, which is the start

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Speaker 1: of Lent, a forty day fasting period leading up to Easter.

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Speaker 1: Shrove Tuesday was the last chance for Christians to indulge

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Speaker 1: with a big meal before the fast began. This also

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Speaker 1: made it a good time to use up any rich,

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Speaker 1: perishable ingredients in the house, things like eggs, milk, and

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Speaker 1: cooking fats. And what quick, easy, indulgent food happens to

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Speaker 1: include all those ingredients, Well, probably a lot of them,

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Speaker 1: but pancakes is certainly up there. In fact, that's yet

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Speaker 1: another name for the holiday, Pancake Day, which is a

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Speaker 1: lot more appetizing than Shrove Tuesday. Still, to be fair,

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Speaker 1: that name comes from the religious component of the holiday,

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Speaker 1: not what's on the menu. Shrove Tuesday is derived from

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Speaker 1: an old English verb that meant to impose a penance upon.

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Speaker 1: Shrove Tuesday was a day to reflect and seek penance

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Speaker 1: as a way to get ready for Lent. A church

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Speaker 1: bell would be rung to call people to confession where

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Speaker 1: they were shriven or absolved from their sins. Shrove Tuesday

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Speaker 1: always falls forty seven days before Easter Sunday, but the

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Speaker 1: exact date changes from year to year, falling somewhere between

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Speaker 1: February third and March nine. As for the whole pancake race,

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Speaker 1: that's actually a Shrove Tuesday tradition. The dates back nearly

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Speaker 1: six hundred years to about fourteen forty five a d.

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Speaker 1: According to legend, a woman in Any, England was busy

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Speaker 1: making pancakes that day. When the church bells began ringing

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Speaker 1: to announce the shriving service. She immediately grabbed her head scarf,

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Speaker 1: which was a church requirement, and bolted out the door,

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Speaker 1: still wearing her apron and with a skillet and pancake

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Speaker 1: in hand. Quick as she could, she ran the four

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifteen yards to the local church and made

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Speaker 1: it a service on time. Apparently she made quite an

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Speaker 1: impression on her neighbors that day, as in the following

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Speaker 1: years others in the community started racing to see who

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Speaker 1: could reach the church first. Once the pancake bell had

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Speaker 1: been wrong, the fastest runner received a quote kiss of

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Speaker 1: peace from the verger or bell ringer, and I'm guessing

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Speaker 1: that part was his idea. Things carried on like that

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Speaker 1: and only for another five hundred years or so until

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty, when the town of Liberal, Kansas asked if

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Speaker 1: it could join in the fun. It started when members

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Speaker 1: of the Liberal Junior Chamber of Commerce learned about the

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Speaker 1: only event from a Men magazine article. Right away, Liberal

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Speaker 1: contacted the Reverend Ronald Collins, vicar of St. Peter and St.

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Speaker 1: Paul's Church in Olney, the Kansas town proposed a friendly

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Speaker 1: transatlantic competition with the women of Alney to see who

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Speaker 1: could run the pancake race the fastest. The vicar reportedly replied, quote,

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Speaker 1: the race is on. The first race between Liberal and

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Speaker 1: Olney was held on February one, nineteen fifty. Only female

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Speaker 1: residents over the age of eighteen were allowed to participate

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Speaker 1: in either town's race. Each runner was required to wear

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Speaker 1: an apron and a headscarf and to carry a frying

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Speaker 1: pan containing a single pancake. While running the four hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifteen yard course, each person had to flip their

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Speaker 1: pancake a total of three times. Whoever did so the

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Speaker 1: fastest in each race was that town's winner. The winning

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Speaker 1: times in each town were then reported over the phone,

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Speaker 1: and the racer at the lowest time was declared the

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Speaker 1: champion of the International Pancake Race. Just like in Olney,

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Speaker 1: the traditional prize of the Liberal race was the Kiss

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Speaker 1: of Peace, although other arguably more desirable prizes were also

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Speaker 1: up for grabs, including a state of the art pressure

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Speaker 1: cooker with a time of one minute eighteen seconds. Billy

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Speaker 1: Marie Warden won the Liberal leg of the first ever

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Speaker 1: International Pancake Race, but that wasn't fast enough to beat

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Speaker 1: her rival in Olney, a woman named Florence Callo, who

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Speaker 1: finished the four hundred and fifteen yard dash in just

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Speaker 1: one minute ten point four seconds. The town of Liberal

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Speaker 1: took its first loss in stride, knowing they'd been beaten

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Speaker 1: by the best. According to Virginia Leet, another Kansas runner

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Speaker 1: in that first race, quote, we lost the pancake race

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Speaker 1: to Alney, but then they had five years of experience.

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Speaker 1: Fair point. Even though the town of Liberal didn't win

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Speaker 1: the competition, the event won over the community and convinced

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Speaker 1: them that the pancake race should become a Kansas tradition too,

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Speaker 1: and so it did. Since nineteen fifty, the event has

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Speaker 1: been held nearly every year. As of recording, the current

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Speaker 1: score stands at thirty nine wins for Liberal and thirty

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Speaker 1: for all me. But with the next race coming up

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Speaker 1: on Shrove Tuesday, that's March one, that's bound to change

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Speaker 1: one way or the other. I'm Gabe Lousier and hopefully

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Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: he did yesterday. If you have a second and you're

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Speaker 1: them my way at this day at i heart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks to Chandler May's for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back

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Speaker 1: here again tomorrow for another day in History class. For

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