Fat Thursday, often called „Polish doughnut day“ by foreigners, is probably the sweetest day of the year. It’s the day when you can buy doughnuts virtually everywhere. Patisseries sell mostly pączki and faworki, also known as chrust (angel wings). By tradition, it’s the day when everyone eats loads of sweet food.
Foreign students attending courses of Polish often want to know where this nicely sweet custom came from.
THE LAST DAYS OF CARNIVAL
Fat Thursday is the last Thursday of carnival, in Old Polish called zapusty. There is a superstition, which says that you should eat at least one pączek on that day if you want to be lucky in the future.
In the past Fat Thursday opened the Fat Week (Tłusty Tydzień), i.e. the last few days before Lent. That meant you needed to eat as much „fat“ food as possible, not only pączki and sweet food, but lots of meat and hearty meals as well, before the period of abstinence began.
FIRST PĄCZKI ON POLISH TABLES
The custom of eating pączki on Fat Thursday dates back to the 17th century, and it first appeared in Polish mansions and cities. However, it didn’t reach the countryside until the end of the 19th century. First pączki looked nothing like what they look like today: sweet, round, glazed or sprinkled with icing sugar. They used to be... generously sprinkled with pork scratchings and filled with pork fat. When sweet pączki started to appear on Fat Thursday, some of them had an almond or a nut hidden inside. The person who found one while eating a pączek was supposed to remain healthy and happy all their life.
A TALE OF CRACOW STREET PEDDLERS (Krakowskie przekupki **)
In Małopolska (Lesser Poland) legend has it that the first Fat Thursday, also called Comber Thursday, was connected with... the death of a strict city head named Comber, who took delight in oppressing and tormenting people. He was known for making Cracow peddlers‘ lives a misery by forbidding trade on town square, imposing high fines or even putting some peddlers to prison. When he died, the people of Cracow started to celebrate and festivities began in the streets. The peddlers made loads of pączki and treated everyone to them. Ever since the last Thursday of carnival has been celebrated as the day when the inhabitants, and the peddlers in particular, were freed from the wicked city head.
TRADITIONAL SWEETS :)
However, the most important rule of Fat Thursday is that we should simply forget about dieting and have a pączek or two, or grab a few faworki (angel wings). Enjoy :)
* Tłusty czwartek (literally: Fat Thursday) is a Polish equivalent of Shrove Tuesday
** Przekupka is a female form
