The original Pancake Day was the Tuesday in March before Ash Wednesday, also known as Shrove Tuesday. Records of it go back to 1439 as a run up to Lent. A modern National Pancake day in the US is the 4th Monday in September. I imagine its origin was commercial, not practical or religious.
This year, we made 6 different recipes of pancakes to find out which ones we like the most and which pair the best with different grades of maple syrup. Three were mixes - King Arthur Baking Buttermilk Pancake mix from the US (4.5 stars on 341 reviews), Dr. Oetker American Style Pancakes from Germany (4.5 stars on 20 reviews on their UK web site), and La Crêpière - recette traditional pour gaufres et pancakes from Switzerland (no reviews found online). We also made three recipes from scratch - New York Times Perfect Buttermilk Pancakes by Alison Roman (5 stars with 7964 reviews), King Arthur Buttermilk Pancake Recipe (5 stars with 105 reviews), New York Times Lemon Ricotta Pancakes by Genevieve Ko (4 stars on 1700 reviews), and finally Vermont Maple's pancake recipe. We were competing with the best of the best.
Each recipe was different from the others. They had different flours, liquids, leavening. Two had vanilla. Recipes called for 1, 2, or 3 eggs. We used identical mixing bowls and both cast iron and ceramic coated frying pans. That gave us a sense of the variables that would make for better pancakes.
We rated the pancakes on visual appeal, aroma, texture, taste by themselves, and taste with maple syrup.
King Arthur Baking Buttermilk pancake mix had white flour and malted barley flour, which helps it rise and helps the pancakes brown.