International Pancake Day is a food festival in Liberal, Kansas that features pancake eating and flipping contests, a parade, a carnival, a 5K fun run, and concluded with the International Pancake Race and a shriving service.
The pancake race follows a tradition established in Olney, England in which housewives run 415 yards carrying a skillet and flipping pancakes. According to Olney archives, a woman engrossed in using up cooking fats that would forbidden during Lent was making pancakes. Hearing the church bells ring calling everyone to the shriving service, she grabbed her head scarf and ran to the church with skillet and pancake in hand and still apron- clad. The following year, her neighbors got into the act and started a race to see who could reach the church first and collect a "Kiss of Peace" from the verger (bell- ringer.) The kiss is still the traditional prize in both Olney and Liberal. The competitors must wear a head scarf and apron, and each runner must flip her pancake at the starting signal and again after crossing the finish line to prove she still has her pancake.
Contact: International Pancake Day, (620) 624-6423
