According to this recipe, American and English pancakes look pretty much the same.
Pancake day is Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. It is also the first day of Lent, according to Wikipedia, which seems weird to me since pancakes don’t seem like fasting.
However, not being a Christian, it all looks like good fun to me. But I wonder where the Mardi Gras parade is. There is usually one in my neighborhood, but I guess it’s usually on the Saturday before or after the actual day. Maybe I missed it. Although it would be very difficult to have a parade right now, with all the snow lying around and the streets so damned slippery!