Pancake Tuesday is upon us once again.

The children of St Mary’s Primary School will today celebrate the custom with the preparation, cooking and eating of pancakes.

Otherwise known as Shrove Tuesday, pancakes are traditionally eaten on this day because they contain ingredients which were forbidden during Lent and needed to be consumed before Lent started.

Lent is the period of abstinence in the 40 days before Easter in the Christian calendar and is marked by fasting, reflection and penance.

The fasting practice is generally not adhered to as strictly as it once was.

“These days Pancake Tuesday is more of a symbolic representation that Lent is about to start,” St Mary’s assistant principal Sue Coyle said.