Shrove Tuesday is the day before the beginning of Lent, the 40-day period before Easter in the Christian year. It is celebrated in many different ways all over the world, but in England is traditionally associated with the cooking and eating of pancakes—so much so that it is often called Pan Cake Day.

At Olney, a small town in England, Shrove Tuesday is Pancake Race Day. The race is said to have first been run there in 1445 and has continued more or less ever since with occasional interruptions as, for example, during the Second World War.

It is a race for woman only. They must be housewives and live in the area. They have to cook a pancake and run about 400 meters from the village square to the parish church, tossing their pancake three times as they run. They have to wear aprons and cover their heads with a hat or scarf. A bell rings twice for the women to start making their pancakes and then again for them to assemble in the square, carrying their cooked pancakes in a frying pan. There they wait for the bell to ring again and the race starts. Sometimes one of the pancakes drops on the group, but the runner is allowed to pick it up and toss it again.

The winner and the runner-up both get a prize from the vicar who is waiting at the church door. The verger who helps to look after the church, gets a kiss from the winner and often her pancake as well. Then all the runners take their frying pans with the pancakes into the church and a short service is held.

The pancake race, with the women flying along, tossing and trying to catch their pancakes, provides a great, deal of entertainment and is frequently shown on television. In 1950, a similar pancake race was organized in Kansas, USA, and has continued ever since. It takes place on the same day, at exactly the same time. Times are clocked on both sides of the Atlantic and there is keen competition to see whether the British or American housewives run faster.

What is required of a housewife who takes part in the pancake race in Olney?