Apparently this is a major observance in England. Or not. Someone can post a comment and correct me. My information is all from the Google this morning, and none of it seems particularly authoritative. Still, memories of my childhood spent among the Presbyterians, where "Lent" was barely known and Ash Wednesday non-existent, are of a "Pancake Supper" on the Tuesday before Lent started. So I know the custom is an old one, if only because we were still doing what our spiritual ancestors had done before us, long after we'd forgotten why. (I think we even called it "Shrove Tuesday," though we really didn't know why at all.)
Still, dangerously ecumenical as it may sound, in the words of the old E&R order of worship, "Let it be unto you according to your faith." And this year, try some spices in your pancakes (I particularly recommend cinnamon and/or nutmeg) for, as one website observed, "a little decadence." Lent is coming, after all....
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