Hundreds cheer as runners with fry pans race to mark Pancake Day

LONDON (AP) - Racers dressed as a skyscraper, beekeeper and a chest of drawers were among dozens of runners in zany costumes zipping around a central London square with a frying pan in hand to celebrate Shrove Tuesday, or "Pancake Day."

Hundreds of people packed into Guildhall Yard and cheered as participants in the annual Inter-Livery Pancake Race ran around the square while tossing pancakes in their frying pans.

The spectacle was one of many pancake races across the U.K. to mark the day before the start of Lent, the Christian period of repentance and sacrifice before Easter. Celebrated as Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday in other parts of the world, the name Shrove Tuesday derives from the English word meaning to seek forgiveness or be granted absolution.

The Inter-Livery race featured teams donning fancy dress or traditional garb that represent their livery companies - historic guilds or trade associations that have existed in London for almost 1,000 years.

The company of gunmakers fired the starting gun, the clockmakers timed the races, while the "fruiterers" provided the lemons to go with the pancakes on sale from stands at the square.

Winners receive a trophy - as well as a frying pan.