Skipping Day in Scarborough

Skipping Day in Scarborough 2024

/ February 16, 2020 / 19 Comments / England, Europe, Life at home, UK

Updated 18/01/24

Skipping Day in Scarborough 2024 takes place on Shrove Tuesday, February 13. The annual tradition has been going for more than 100 years. So get ready to see crowds on the town’s foreshore jumping ropes and pancake races in the highstreet.  

Skipping Day in Scarborough is a tradition anyone who grew up in the town will tell you about. Every year we would get the afternoon off school on Shrove Tuesday and head down to the seafront with our long skipping ropes. The road is closed off to traffic and families spend time playing various skipping games.

Like many childhood traditions, the origins of it were pretty fuzzy to me. So not knowing any different, I honestly assumed everyone in the country did the same.

When I arrived at university I quickly earned the nickname Sandra Dee, as I was always dropping myself in it with “uncool” observations about life. So imagine my new friends’ delight when I innocently asked whether we’d be partaking in Skipping Day!

Obviously I have never lived this comment down and to this day jokes are made at my expense about it.

Skipping Day in Scarborough 2024

So what’s happening for Skipping Day in Scarborough 2024? Well events usually kick off with the ringing of the pancake bell at 12 noon. The bell hangs in North Street, so head there if you want to hear the start of the celebrations.

Then at 12.15pm the Pancake Races will begin on Aberdeen Walk. This is always a fun event, as various teams from local businesses compete to  complete an obstacle course while flipping pancakes in frying pans. There’s a Golden Frying Pan for the winner, so the stakes are high!

Pancake Day races in Scarborough

The skipping itself takes place on Foreshore Road throughout the afternoon. So grab a rope and get down there!

The origins of Skipping Day in Scarborough

Over the years I have discovered a couple of different theories about the origins of Skipping Day in Scarborough. Some believe it began with local fishermen sorting their ropes and nets and giving the damaged ones to children.

I recently came across this first hand account in Scarborough Art Gallery, which seems to confirm that the ropes did indeed come from the fishing boats.

Rope from Scarborough Skipping Day An information card about Skipping Day

However, another theory is that Skipping Day originated from an older tradition known as Ball Day. This was a public holiday when servants would play games on the foreshore and children would take their ropes.

Either way, it is widely agreed that the tradition has been going for more than 100 years.

Whatever its origin, I love that something which began so long ago is maintained and loved just as much today.

Skipping Day is often something I think about when I’m travelling, because one of my favourite things to do is to take part in different festivals. I think you learn so much about other cultures by experiencing special events and I often plan trips around them.

I’ve partied at the Miss Colombia Festival in Cartagena; got soaked at the Songkran Festival in Thailand; experienced the gorgeous cherry blossom illuminations at Matsumoto Castle in Japan and stood open-mouthed at the sheer craziness of Lewes Bonfire Night celebrations. Often when you’re getting soaked by a passerby with a bucket of water or being covered in red paint by a group of school kids, you’ll look at the other tourists around you and ask: “Could you ever imagine this happening back at home?”

So I think it’s nice sometimes to remember the traditions which we do celebrate. Some of which may seem so normal to us, but would probably be somewhat strange to other people.

My memories of Skipping Day

As kids we absolutely loved Skipping Day. You got the afternoon off school for starters, so what’s not to like?

When I was five there was a photograph of me in our local paper, The Scarborough Evening News, skipping while my granny and her friend turned the rope. Unfortunately I was wearing a ‘trendy’ puffa jacket at the time, so it’s definitely not the most flattering photo! But I still have that article, because to me it sums up what Skipping Day is all about: people of all ages getting caught up in the excitement of a special day.

I even remember my granny and her friend having a go at jumping the rope, teaching me the important lesson that no matter how old you are, you can always be a kid at heart.

Continuing the tradition

One of the things I really hope to instil in my little adventurers is a love of travel. I love taking them to new places and allowing them to experience different cultures. But I also want them to enjoy some of the traditions I grew up with, so that one day they’ll become their special memories too.

That’s why I take them to Scarborough to join in with Skipping Day with their grandparents.
 
They love watching the Pancake Races in Aberdeen Walk. This dinosaur in particular was a firm favourite!
 
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Pancake-Day-races-Scarborough-dino-858x1024.jpg
 
I also loved that last time I was visiting there was a guy next to me from Japan who was on a work trip. He’d been brought along by a colleague and had a ‘what on earth is going on?’ look on his face. 
 
After the races we walk down to the seafront with our skipping rope. We always have a fun afternoon, attempting to play various skipping games, bumping into people we know and, of course, eating pancakes.
 
Skipping Day pancakes
 
For me, Skipping Day in Scarborough is a special time to be able to take my little adventurers back to experience a day I used to love when I was their age.
 
So you might call it Pancake Day, but to those of us who grew up in a Yorkshire seaside town called Scarborough, no matter where we are in the world, it will always be Skipping Day to us!
 
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If you’re looking for more things to do in Scarborough with kids, check out this post. Plus, here’s my guide to the best beaches in North Yorkshire. Or, if you want a fun day out a little further afield, check out my post about visiting Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

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