International Pancake Day in the USA

One of the popular American holidays is an analogue of Russian Maslenitsa Pancakes are traditionally baked on this day, but they celebrate it in a completely different way It is called International Pancake Day, and the holiday is international because it takes place in two countries - America and England The date of the holiday changes every year, but always falls on a Tuesday in February or March The ancestor of Pancake Day was the small English town of Olney, and in America it was popularized by the first settlers who explored the new continent The history of the holiday is funny and unusual One day, an Olney resident was baking pancakes in her kitchen She was so carried away by the process that when the church bell rang, calling for the morning service, the hostess was not taken aback and ran to the church along with the frying pan on which the pancake continued to fry One of the local residents came up with the idea of ​​organizing a competition among the residents of the town - a pancake race The tradition of running with baking pancakes so that you can turn them over while running and not drop them has caught on Pancake Day has been celebrated in Olney for about 500 years, and in the United States the holiday was first celebrated in 1950 Pancake races have their own rules Only women over 18 years of age participate in the competition and must wear dresses and aprons There are always a lot of applicants, but only 30 people are selected One of the main conditions is that you need to run the entire distance, which is 400 m, and on the way turn the pancake in the air at least twice so that it falls back into the frying pan And they all run to where the unknown founder of Pancake Day ran many years ago - to the church All this time, a bell-ringer is waiting for them there, ringing the church bells The winner receives a prize - a kiss from the bell ringer and respect from all residents After the church service, a mass celebration begins, where all the remaining pancakes are eaten by local residents Each of these women dreams of becoming a pancake race participant, so they train for a year to one day become one of the thirty selected participants