why is it fat thursday in poland
In Poland it’s called Fat Thursday (Tłusty Czwartek) because it’s the traditional last big day of eating rich, fatty and sweet foods before the strict fasting period of Lent begins in the Catholic calendar.
Why is it Fat Thursday in Poland?
Quick Scoop
- Fat Thursday is the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday , so it falls right at the end of Carnival and just before Lent starts.
- Historically, people used this day to use up “fat” ingredients like lard, butter, sugar, and eggs that they wouldn’t eat during Lent.
- Over time it turned into a huge tradition of eating pączki (Polish doughnuts) and other pastries, almost like a national permission slip to binge on sweets for one day.
- There’s also a superstition that if you don’t eat at least one doughnut on Fat Thursday, you’ll have bad luck for the rest of the year.
A Bit of History
- The roots go back to the late Middle Ages in Poland and even further to ancient Roman pre-Lent feasts where people stuffed themselves with fatty foods before periods of restraint.
- Originally, the focus was not on sweets but on meat, lard, bacon and heavy, fatty dishes to “load up” before leaner days.
- With time, pastries evolved: savory, heavy doughs slowly gave way to sweet doughnuts filled with preserves, which became the star of the modern celebration.
How It’s Celebrated Today
- Today, Fat Thursday in Poland is basically a doughnut festival : bakeries open early, lines form down the street, and millions of pączki are sold in a single day.
- Typical treats include:
- Pączki – deep‑fried, yeast doughnuts, often filled with rose jam, plum jam, custard or other creams , dusted with powdered sugar or glazed.
* Faworki (chrust) – light, crispy, twisted pastries dusted with powdered sugar.
- Offices, schools and families often buy boxes of pączki to share , and many people jokingly compete over how many they can eat in one day.
Why “Thursday,” Not Tuesday?
- In many other countries, the big pre‑Lent feast is on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday), but in Poland the main sweets blow‑out is on Thursday , a few days earlier.
- One explanation is simply that Polish Carnival traditions fixed the big feasting on the last Thursday of Carnival , starting the final intense party week before Lent.
- Some historians note that people may have wanted to avoid Friday , traditionally a meatless and more restrained day in Catholic practice, so the feast shifted to Thursday.
Fun Extras and Legends
- In Kraków there’s an old story about “Comber’s Thursday” : women supposedly celebrated the death of a harsh mayor (Combr) on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday with raucous street revelry, which blended into Fat Thursday customs.
- Modern Polish media call it the “sweetest day of the year” , and surveys show many Poles eat several pączki that day, sometimes 3–5 or more.
Bottom line: It’s “Fat Thursday” in Poland because, historically and today, it’s the day you’re supposed to eat fatty, rich, especially sweet foods before Lent’s fasting and restrictions kick in.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.