Fat Thursday - favorite Polish day 🍩

This week, when I was preparing to go out, I heard on the radio the headline of a broadcast or an interview titled Fat Thursday - a favorite Polish holiday!I started to wonder where this holiday came from and suddenly I was reminded of Mardi Gras- the French equivalent of our favorite day of the year when the calories we consume do not fatten us a bit.

Well, in France this is Tuesday - the last day before the beginning of Lent. Those who decide to put away sweets for the next 40 days, wanting to enjoy the last day of sweet freedom, eat much more sweets than usual. (As a result, they are probably so full of sweets that they are not able to look at them for the next week.)

After some reasearch and found that celebrating this day started in ancient Romans. They celebrated a "fat day" which was established to welcome spring and say goodbye to winter. The feast was based on eating greasy dishes, dancing, drinking wine and biting donuts, which did not have much in common with modern ones. They were hard, fairly round buns made from a dough resembling a bread dough - without yeast.

In Poland, the habit of eating donuts on a fat Thursday in today's version appeared only around the sixteenth century. However, they differed from those we eat today. In the past, in the middle of the cake was hidden an almond or a  small peanut, and the one who turned up for such a "happy" donut, had to enjoy the affulence and prosperity.

In Poland, over half of the poplations eat 3 to 5 donuts that day. About 15% eat more than 5, and the tradition say that the more you eat, the more happiness you will bring another year. So use this one day and do not think about calories, but about a happy future! :)