Fat Thursday | |
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![]() Plate of Polish pączki | |
Type | Christian, cultural |
Significance | Celebration period before fasting season of Lent |
Celebrations | Feasting |
Date | 5 days before Shrove Tuesday and Mardi Gras, 6 days before Ash Wednesday, [1] 52 days before Easter |
2023 date | February 16 |
2024 date | February 8 |
2025 date | February 27 |
2026 date | February 12 |
Frequency | Annual |
Related to | Carnival, Fat Tuesday |
Fat Thursday is a Christian tradition in some countries marking the last Thursday before Lent and is associated with the celebration of Carnival. Because Lent is a time of fasting, the days leading up to Ash Wednesday provide the last opportunity for feasting (including simply eating forbidden items) until Easter. Traditionally it is a day dedicated to eating, when people meet in their homes or cafés with their friends and relatives and eat large quantities of sweets, cakes and other meals usually not eaten during Lent. Among the most popular all-national dishes served on that day are pączki in Poland [2] [3] or Berliners, fist-sized donuts filled with rose hip jam, and angel wings (faworki), puff pastry fingers served with powdered sugar.
In Slovenia, Fat Thursday is celebrated with specific culinary traditions. People often enjoy special foods that are rich and hearty. A common treat is “krof,” a type of doughnut that is usually filled with jam, particularly apricot, and dusted with powdered sugar. These doughnuts are a staple of the celebration and are enjoyed by many.
Apart from krof, other fatty and rich foods are also consumed, reflecting the tradition’s focus on indulgence and enjoyment before the austerity of Lent. The celebration is not just about food; it’s also a time for social gatherings, family get-togethers, and community events, often accompanied by music and festivities.
The tradition may have an older background though. The position of men compared to women in society has often been a matter of debate. In Cologne is since 1824 the so-called Weiberfastnacht known. On the Thursday before carnaval, women are wearing men's clothes, reversing the roles and thus literally "being the man". In the Dutch border village Groenstraat a precursor to the Auwwieverbal (Old women ball) or Auw Wieverdaag (old women day) was known already in the early 19th century. The people at that time earned a living by breeding goats and selling woman's hair. The Thursday before carnaval the men would sell the hair to their French buyers. After the sale, as the man had plenty of money, they would go visit the pubs. The women would not be at the sale because they were expected to stay at home. Out of fear that their men would squander the money raised by their hair, the women would go find their husbands to prevent them from wasting it on alcohol. The search along the pubs transformed later to the Ouwewijvenbal. The women, this time incognito, firmly asserted themselves to their husbands and other men. [4]
In Poland, Fat Thursday is called tłusty czwartek (which roughly translates to Greasy Thursday). People purchase their favorite pastries from their local bakeries. Traditional foods include pączki (doughnuts), which are large deep-fried pieces of yeast dough, traditionally filled with fruit jam or rose petal jam (though others are often used) and topped with powdered sugar, icing or glaze. [5] [6] Angel wings (faworki or chrusty) are also commonly consumed on this day. [7]
Jeudi Gras (French for Fat Thursday) is a time when crepes would be served to use up stores of butter or lard and eggs, similar to the Shrove Tuesday tradition regarding pancakes in England.
Weiberfastnacht is an unofficial holiday in the Rhineland. [8] At the majority of workplaces, work ends before noon. Celebrations start at 11:11 am in Germany. In comparison with Rosenmontag, there are hardly any parades, but people wear costumes and celebrate in pubs and in the streets. [9] Beueler Weiberfastnacht ("women's carnival in Beuel") is traditionally celebrated in the Bonn district of Beuel. [10] The tradition is said to have started here in 1824, when local women first formed their own "carnival committee". The symbolic storming of the Beuel town hall is broadcast live on TV. In many towns across the state of North Rhine Westphalia, a ritual "takeover" of the town halls by local women has become tradition. Among other established customs, on that day women cut off the ties of men, which are seen as a symbol of men's status. The men wear the stumps of their ties and get a Bützchen (little kiss) as compensation. [11]
Known as Tsiknopempti in Greece, it is part of the traditional celebrations of Apókries (Απόκριες), the Greek Carnival season. The celebration, normally translated as Smelly Thursday, Charred Thursday, or Smoky Thursday, centers on the consumption of large amounts of grilled and roasted meats.[ citation needed ]
Giovedì grasso (Fat Thursday) is celebrated in Italy, [12] but it is not very different from martedì grasso (Shrove Tuesday). In Venice at the turn of the twentieth century, for example, it was marked by "masquerades, a battle of flowers on the Plaza, a general illumination and the opening of the lottery". [13] The English writer Marie Corelli mentioned giovedì grasso (as "Giovedi Grasso") in her second novel, Vendetta (1886), as a day when "the fooling and the mumming, the dancing, shrieking, and screaming would be at its height." [14]
In Spain this celebration is called jueves lardero or jueves de comadre and in Catalan-speaking areas, dijous gras, a children's holiday. [15] In Albacete in Spain community of Castille-La Mancha, jueves lardero or Dia de la Mona is celebrated with a round pastry with a boiled egg in the middle called mona. In Aragon a meal is prepared with a special sausage from Graus while in Catalonia the tradition is to eat sweet Bunyols and Botifarra d’ou.
Syrian Catholics have celebrated the day as "Drunkard's Thursday" with dolmas as the traditional food. [16] [17]
Mardi Gras is the final day of Carnival or Shrovetide before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", reflecting the practice of the last night of consuming rich, fatty foods in preparation for the fasting season of Lent.
Carnival or Shrovetide is a Christian festive season that occurs before Lent, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras.
A doughnut or donut is a type of pastry made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty vendors. Doughnut is the traditional spelling, while donut is the simplified version; the terms are used interchangeably.
Meteņi or Metenis is an ancient Latvian spring waiting holiday, that ends on Ash Wednesday, which is followed by Lent. Meteņi is celebrated in February or early March, seven weeks before Lieldienas.
Shrove Tuesday is the final day of Shrovetide, marking the end of pre-Lent. Lent begins the following day with Ash Wednesday. Shrove Tuesday is observed in many Christian countries through participating in confession; the ritual burning of the previous year's Holy Week palms; finalizing one's Lenten sacrifice; as well as eating pancakes and other sweets.
Pączki are filled doughnuts found in Polish cuisine.
A cruller is a deep-fried pastry popular in Europe and in parts of North America. Regarded as a form of cake doughnut in the latter, it is typically either made of a string of dough that is folded over and twisted twice to create its signature shape, or formed from a rectangle of dough with a cut in the center allowing it to be pulled over and through itself to produce distinctive twists in the sides of the pastry.
Fasnacht is a fried doughnut of German origin in Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine, served traditionally in the days of Carnival and Fastnacht or on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent starts. Fasnachts were made as a way to empty the pantry of lard, sugar, fat, and butter, which were traditionally fasted from during Lent.
A Berliner is a German jam doughnut with no central hole, made from sweet yeast dough fried in lard or cooking oil, with a jam filling, and usually covered in powdered sugar.
Angel wings are a traditional sweet crisp pastry made out of dough that has been shaped into thin twisted ribbons, deep-fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Common to many European cuisines, angel wings have been incorporated into other regional cuisines by immigrant populations. They are most commonly eaten in the period just before Lent, often during Carnival and on Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Lent – not to be confused with "Fat Tuesday", the day before the start of Lent. There is a tradition in some countries for husbands to give angel wings to their wives on Friday the 13th in order to avoid bad luck.
The Busójárás is an annual celebration of the Šokci living in the town of Mohács, Hungary, held at the end of the Carnival season ("Farsang"), ending the day before Ash Wednesday. The celebration features Busós and includes folk music, masquerading, parades and dancing. Busójárás lasts six days, usually during February. It starts on a Thursday, followed by the Kisfarsang carnival on Friday, with the biggest celebration, Farsang vasárnap on the seventh Sunday before Easter Sunday; the celebration then ends with Farsangtemetés on the following Tuesday. These traditional festivities have been inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the UNESCO in 2009.
Shrove Monday is part of the Carnival or Shrovetide celebrations of the week before Lent, following Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday and preceding Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras.
Maslenitsa, also known as Butter Lady, Butter Week, Crepe week, or Cheesefare Week, is an Eastern Slavic religious and folk holiday which has retained a number of elements of Slavic mythology in its ritual. It is celebrated during the last week before Great Lent; that is, the eighth week before Eastern Orthodox Pascha.
Rosenmontag is the highlight of the German Karneval (carnival), and takes place on the Shrove Monday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Mardi Gras, though celebrated on Fat Tuesday, is a similar event. Rosenmontag is celebrated in German-speaking countries, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium, but most heavily in the carnival strongholds which include the Rhineland, especially in Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Aachen and Mainz. In contrast to Germany, in Austria, the highlight of the carnival is not Rosenmontag, but Shrove Tuesday.
Lent is the solemn Christian religious observance in the liturgical year commemorating the 40 days Jesus Christ spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, before beginning his public ministry. Lent is usually observed in the Catholic, Lutheran, Moravian, Anglican, United Protestant and Orthodox Christian traditions, among others. Some Anabaptist, Baptist, Methodist, Reformed, and nondenominational Christian churches also observe Lent, although many churches in these traditions do not.
A variety of customs and traditions are associated with Carnival celebrations in the German-speaking countries of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. They can vary considerably from country to country, but also from one small region to another. This is reflected in the various names given to these festivities occurring before Lent.
The Carnival of Madeira is an annual festival held forty days before Easter, that ends on Fat Tuesday the day before Ash Wednesday. On certain days of Lent, Roman Catholics traditionally abstained from the consumption of meat and poultry, hence the term "carnival," from carnelevare, "to remove meat."
Tsiknopempti is part of the traditional celebrations of Apókries (Απόκριες), the Greek Carnival season. Tsiknopempti occurs on the last Thursday before Lent and can be translated as Charred Thursday or Smoky Thursday. It centers on the consumption of large amounts of grilled and roasted meats before Lenten fasting commences.
Fastnacht Day is an annual Pennsylvania Dutch celebration that falls on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. The word translates to "Fasting Night" or “Almost Night” in English. The tradition is to eat the very best foods, which are part of the German tradition, and much of them, before the Lenten fast. Fastnachts are similar to doughnuts. There are three types of Fasnacht, one made with yeast, one made with baking powder, and one made with potatoes and yeast. All are slightly crispy on the outside and not as sweet as doughnuts.
Slavic carnivals are known under different names in various Slavic countries: Bulgarian: Сирни заговезни, Прошка, Поклади, romanized: Sirni zagovezni, Proshka, Pokladi; Macedonian: Прочка, romanized: Pročka; Russian: Масленица, Мясопуст, romanized: Maslenitsa, Myasopust; Polish: Ostatki, Mięsopust, Zapusty; Czech: Masopust, Šibřinky, Ostatky; Slovak: Fašiangy; Slovene: Mesopȗst, Pust, Pustni teden, Fašnk; Serbian: Покладе, Проћка / Poklade, Proćka; Croatian: Pust, Poklade, Mesopust, Fašnik. They are traditional Slavic festivals related to the period of carnival.