In Sweden the day before Ash Wednesday is known as fettisdagen ("Fat Tuesday") in Swedish. The day is marked by eating a traditional pastry, called semla or fastlagsbulle, which is a sweet bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream.
Yum. I can't honor my Swedish ancestors by having a fastlagsbulle, but the Pennsylvania Dutch, who used to be Germans, have fasnachts, so in honor of my German ancestors I had a donut.
I wondered if the "fas/t" in the above treat names had to do with Lenten fasting, but according to this, it's only by popular etymology.
1 comment:
We don't have many Swedish or German delis around here but we could get you all the yummy Italian, Portuguese, Irish, and French Canadian pastries your tummy could stand to eat for Fat Tuesday, or any other Catholic holiday for that matter.
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