Participants take part in the annual Great Spitalfields Pancake Race in aid of London's Air Ambulance in London, Britain February 9, 2016. (Photo by Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)
A competitor takes part in the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race at the City of London's Leadenhall Market on February 13, 2024. (Photo by Isabel Infantes/Reuters)
Burning effigies of winter during a celebration of Maslenitsa festival (Pancake Week) at the Etnomir (Ethnoworld) cultural and educational center in Kaluga Region, Russia on March 1, 2020. The holiday celebrates the end of winter and marks the arrival of spring. (Photo by Sergei Bobylev/TASS)
A man climbs up a wooden pole to get a prize during celebration of Maslenitsa, or Pancake Week, a pagan holiday marking the end of winter, near Rumyantsevo, Moscow region, Russia, February 26, 2017. (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)
Artists watch burning an effigy of Lady Maslenitsa as they celebrate Maslenitsa, or Pancake Week, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, March 13, 2016. Maslenitsa is widely viewed as a pagan holiday marking the end of winter and is celebrated with pancake eating and shows of strength, while the Orthodox Church considers it as the week of feasting before Lent. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)
A man wearing a traditional Russian costume holds a goose after a traditional goose fight during celebrations of Maslenitsa, also known as Pancake Week, which is a pagan holiday marking the end of winter, in Suzdal, Russia on February 29, 2020. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)
A student from the General Yermolov Cadet School performs with models of swords during celebrations of Maslenitsa, or Pancake Week, a pagan holiday marking the end of winter, in southern city of Stavropol, Russia, March 6, 2019. (Photo by Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)
British housewives toss pancakes in skillets as they run through the streets of Olney, England, in the community's annual race which follows a 500-year-old tradition, February 6, 1951. Mrs. Isabel Dix, 22, extreme right, won the race covering the 415 yards from the Parish pump to the door of Sts. Peter and Paul church in one minute, 12.1 seconds. (Photo by AP Photo)