AUBURN - The Rev. Doug Taylor-Weiss, of SS. Peter and John, said that in Old English, the word “shrive” means to hear confession. From “shrive” comes “shrove” and ultimately what Taylor-Weiss said was the English church equivalent of Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday.

“It is the day to confess,” Taylor-Weiss said. “The day before Ash Wednesday and before Lent starts.”

SS. Peter and John was among many churches in the area that celebrated Shrove Tuesday with a huge pancake supper.

It is something that has also been passed down from the English tradition.

“People generally give up meat and things like that for Lent,” Taylor-Weiss said. “Or they stop eating animal products and that is where this comes from. You get rid of the sausages and they used to use the grease to cook the pancakes in, we don't do that part of things any more, but we still have the pancake dinner.”

Taylor-Weiss said he has been with the church for the past 10 years and this is a tradition that extends well beyond that at SS Peter and Paul.

“I think they've been doing this for as long as anyone can remember,” Taylor-Weiss said. “As long as I've been here we always get a good turn out, I think people really enjoy the dinner and like the tradition of it.”

Parish member Jackie Jones helped lead the kitchen crew, no small task, considering the volume of food being cooked.

“We are all volunteers,” Jones said. “There are 11 or 12 of us. We do all the cooking and serving and everything. We do two of these dinners every year, this and our pork chop dinners, so we kind of have a system of working together, but most importantly we enjoy it.”

Among this year's volunteers was Jones' nephew Kyle Cole.

“Our family is always involved in this,” Cole said. “I just thought it would be nice to help out. It is a little crazy, but it is a lot of fun.”

Huge pans of eggs, bacon, sausage and of course pancakes, dripping with butter and syrup were plentiful and they were needed.

In a chaotic kitchen, Jones and the other volunteers were scrambling to feed a literal army of people streaming into the church meeting hall.

“We always get a good turnout,” Jones said. “We've had at least 50 people here already. If we get that we're happy, if we get up to 100 we are thrilled.”

Among those drawn to the dinner was Kristin Holmes, who believed the dinner was a unique way to celebrate the day before Lent.

“I've never been here for this before,” Holmes said. “My mom told me about it, I think it is a great idea, something different.”

And with so much food, others were thrilled to dig into a big breakfast for dinner.

“I really like pancakes,” said Jeff Thurston, 11. “It is all really good, but I really like the pancakes.”

And more than anything, this is what the dinner is all about.

“We really just do this for the celebration,” Jones said. “We don't do this for a fundraiser or anything, we just want to do something everyone can enjoy and celebrate.”