Some ancient traditions in Lithuania dovetail to create some truly unique events for Pancake Day — notably, Uzgavenes. While eating pancakes is common, of course, so is a sort of fancy dress event where, depending on the region, the costumed people give gifts, dance and play pranks. There is also a ritual burning of a female figure called More, which cleanses the townspeople of misfortune and anger.

Fasnacht is a peculiar Germanic variation of Carnival, practiced only in certain regions. It takes place several days after Ash Wednesday, in opposition to the Shrove Tuesday date that was set in 1091 at the Synod of Benevento. Basel, Switzerland, embraces this in a very regional way, starting celebrations at precisely 4 a.m. on the Monday after Ash Wednesday and ending 72 hours later. Electric lights are turned off for the festival, which is lit instead with old fashioned lanterns.

The ancient Viking holiday of Þorrablót (Thorrablot), celebrating Þór (Thor), the god of thunder, was revived during Iceland's struggle for independence from Denmark and embraced by Icelandic expats in Copenhagen as a source of identity. Thor's feast days, which started near the end of January, evolved under Christianity and now include a number of festive holidays. The Icelandic holiday of Sprengidagur, or Bursting Day, is celebrated on Shrove Tuesday.

Near Porto, Portugal, is the village of Lazarim. This place would not be particularly well known, were it not for the fact that the people of this town keep alive the Entrudo practices of the Middle Ages, with a few improvements. People called caretos wear elaborate wooden masks and play pranks. Then the so-called godmothers and godfathers parade from one part of the village to another, each carrying a doll, each singing naughty songs about the other gender. Two large dolls, one of each gender, are loaded with fireworks, displayed on a balcony and ignited.

In the north of Germany since the 1600s, Shrove Tuesday has involved what they call Karneval, a Germanic version of the festival in Venice. Despite its Germanic spelling, the word "Karneval" is derived from the Latin "carne levare," meaning "away with meat," a root common between Karneval and the Venetian Carnevale.

In Austria and the southern parts of Germany, the pre-Lenten observance is called Fasching, and it is distinct from other regional customs, even German ones. The name dates to the 1200s and is related to the word "fastenschank," meaning the last serving of adult beverages, and a direct cousin of the English verb "to fast." Fasching is a festival of all things one isn't supposed to consume during Lent.

A tradition imported to New Orleans from France is that of the king cake. A king cake is a cake, often sprinkled with purple, gold and green sugar, in which a prize is hidden. In the past, this prize might have been a bean or coin, although today it is often a little plastic baby. The person who finds the prize in their slice of cake is tasked with providing the king cake the following year.

New Orleans's Fat Tuesday celebration, Mardi Gras, is well known for its fantastic costumed parade and debauchery, but a tradition peculiar to Mardi Gras is something called "throws." Throws are objects thrown from the floats in the Mardi Gras parade: items including strings of beads, coins and other peculiar objects. This tradition started in 1870, evolving by 1884 to be specific to the throwing of medallions and beads.

According to local legend, a woman busily cooking pancakes in Olney, Buckinghamshire, heard the shriving bell while still at work in her kitchen. The year was 1445. She wanted her pancake, but she had to go to church, so she ran to the church in her apron, carrying her still cooking pancakes. Today, the tradition continues: homemakers wearing aprons and bearing pans with pancakes still cooking in them must run a foot race while tossing their pancakes at least three times. The winner of the race serves their pancake to the bellringer and is awarded a kiss. We're told it's all in the wrist.

Pancake "Day"? Pah! Try Pancake Week, or, as they call it in Russia, Maslenitsa. Originally, Maslenitsa was a time for remembering the dead, but it evolved into a celebration with sledding, sleigh riding and, of course, pancake eating. The blini pancake of Russia is somewhat similar to a French crepe. In Russia, the pancake holiday is extended to a whole week, in which, among other consumptive activities, pancakes are eaten en masse.

In Rio's Carnaval, renowned for its risque dress codes and fairly adult parade themes, one long held tradition is that of crossdressing. This practice isn't limited to men dressing as women and women as men, however. Revelers dress in ways indicating different social classes or professions than their own, taking the idea of a masquerade to a whole new level.

In the town of Scarborough, Yorkshire, an ancient tradition of mysterious origins remains to this day. Pancakes aside, the locals assemble in an organized fashion to skip ropes in huge groups, sometimes numbering ten to a single rope. While no one knows who started this tradition or why, one theory is that it may predate Easter. Skipping rope was a pagan magical practice, done in the spring as part of planting, and its traditional practice on Pancake Day may be a complete coincidence.

The Portuguese Entrudo was exported to Brazil and became Carnaval, but the Portuguese days of the compadres and comadres remain a delightfully peculiar tradition. On the Thursdays just prior to Fat Tuesday, a group of young men called godfathers and a like group of young women called godmothers treat each other to days of feasting while making dolls that mock the other group. On Fat Tuesday, the dolls are burned in a bonfire.

Those who attend Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans are quickly made aware that beyond any outlandish costumes, there is a dress code. Specifically, Mardi Gras has its own colors: purple, green and gold. Local legend tells a story about the colors, officially named in 1872, chosen to honor Russian Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Romanoff. However, recent research by historian Errol Flynn Laborde indicates that they were chosen for heraldic reasons having nothing to do with the Grand Duke.

Venice's Shrove Tuesday celebrations, called Carnevale, are famous, particularly for their uses of masks. The Venetian Republic had laws requiring people to dress a certain way, according to their station and profession, but these laws were relaxed for Carnevale. The wearing of masks during the parties held on Shrove Tuesday meant that people could indulge without anyone recognizing them and thus judging them.

Unlike the masks of Venice, the masks of New Orleans have a mixed origin. While popular masks in Venice include many European themes favored during the Middle Ages, such as the plague doctor style of mask, their American counterparts are often inspired by traditions local to America or imported from Africa. Many masks feature feathers and fur, and they're often painted in the traditional purple, green and gold.

The Brazilian style of dance known as the samba is, as with many Brazilian cultural practices, heavily influenced by the huge population of African slaves in the country in the 1600s, who brought their love of dance. During modern Fat Tuesday celebrations in Rio, samba takes center stage, as samba schools from across the country come to put on elaborate shows as part of the parades in Rio.

Seen in Venice and spreading to other Fat Tuesday celebrations, the plague doctor mask isn't named ironically. Created by a doctor in the 1600s, its long beak was meant to be filled with potpourri, as physicians at the time believed that the disgusting smells of plague were responsible for spreading it. Odd looking and unique, this mask is now a playful evocation of death, made in safe jest.

Part of the original structure of the Entrudo style of carnival in Portugal included what can best be described as a massive food fight. As people gathered in the streets, they would throw fistfuls of flour at each other or dump buckets of water on each other — usually both. This delightfully messy tradition, after making its way across the Atlantic, was banned in Rio starting in 1856, because it often resulted in violence there.

Mob football is an ancient tradition in which whole towns would take over the streets to play massive football (or soccer) melees with their neighboring towns. Shrove Tuesday, with its sugary, savory carbohydrates, must have inspired many to participate in this game. It was widespread for centuries until the 1835 Highways Act banned playing football on public highways. Despite this, some towns have preserved the tradition, including Ashbourne, St Columb Major, Sedgefield and Alnwick. One can only imagine Liverpool playing Everton on the M6.

The German city of Cologne has a unique Karneval tradition called Nubbelverbrennung — the burning of the Nubbel. An act symbolic of casting off the sins of Shrove Tuesday at the beginning of Lent, Nubbelverbrennung consists of burning straw dummies in a bonfire. Outside the feasting halls of Cologne, revelers will likely see straw men prepared by the restaurants for the evening bonfire, though many people make their own.

Westminster School in London has its own Pancake Day tradition. Dubbed the Pancake Greaze, this competition is as peculiar as it is charming. The school's cook hefts a giant pancake over a bar 15 feet in the air to a group of waiting boys. They must tear pieces for themselves. Whoever has the largest piece at the end is given a cash prize by the dean. Presumably, they don't eat the war-torn pancake.

Presumably, children do not participate in the more lively Fat Tuesday celebrations or commit sins that would require them to spend time in penance, but one Pancake Day activity — other than eating pancakes — is aimed at children. It is simply called "shroving" or "Lent-crocking." Children participate in a combination of caroling and trick-or-treating, wandering their towns, singing hymns and reciting poetry in exchange for sweets.

The people of Venice created what could be the first purpose-built party mask, the bauta. Designed without a mouth, the mask has instead a huge projected beak, open at the bottom, extending from the nose. This allows the person in the mask to eat, drink and speak without removing the mask or revealing any part of their face. This mask is also popular on other fancy dress holidays and in some theatrical shows.

Laskiainen is the name the Finns give to their version of Fat Tuesday. Just as Finland is not very much like Brazil, neither is their big party. Consumption on this holiday involves the signature items of pea soup with ham and cheese, and buns filled with sweet fruit preserves. Once full of food, instead of performing a vigorous samba, Laskiainen participants go sledding down one of the many snow-covered hills. Celebrants in Minnesota have carried these traditions to the U.S.