Fat Thursday

Fat Thursday is a traditional Christian feast 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 berliner, fist-sized donuts filled with rose hip jam, and angel wings (faworki), French dough fingers served with powdered sugar.

Fat Thursday
TypeChristian, cultural
SignificanceCelebration period before fasting season of Lent
CelebrationsFeasting
Date5 days before Shrove Tuesday and Mardi Gras, 6 days before Ash Wednesday,[1] 52 days before Easter
2019 dateFebruary 28
2020 dateFebruary 20
2021 dateFebruary 11
2022 dateFebruary 24
FrequencyAnnual
Related toCarnival, Fat Tuesday
A plate of Polish pączki
A plate of angel wings
"Bizcochos" and "mona" on Fat Thursday in Albacete, Spain

By country

Germany

Weiberfastnacht is an unofficial holiday in the Rhineland.[4] At the majority of workplaces, work ends before noon. Celebrations start at 5:00 in Germany. In comparison with Rosenmontag, there are hardly any parades, but people wear costumes and celebrate in pubs and in the streets.[5] Beueler Weiberfastnacht ("women's carnival in Beuel") is traditionally celebrated in the Bonn district of Beuel.[6] 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.[7]

Greece
Main article: Tsiknopempti

Italy

Giovedì grasso (Fat Thursday) is celebrated in Italy,[8] but it is not very different from martedì grasso (Shrove Tuesday). In Venice at the turn into 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".[9] The English writer Marie Corelli mentioned "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."[10]

Poland

In Poland, Fat Thursday is called Tłusty Czwartek. People purchase their favorite pastries from their local bakeries. Traditional foods include pączki (doughnuts), which are large deep-fried pieces of especially rich dough, traditionally filled with plum or rose petal jam (though others are commonly used) and topped with powdered sugar, icing, or glaze.[11][12] Angel wings (faworki) are also commonly consumed on this day.

Spain

In Spain this celebration is called jueves lardero, and in Catalan-speaking areas, dijous gras, a children's holiday.[13] In Albacete in central Spain, jueves lardero is celebrated with a square pastry called a bizcocho (see also Bizcocho) and a round pastry called a 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.

Other traditions

Maronites and other Syriac Catholics have celebrated the day as "Drunkard's Thursday" with dolmas as the traditional food.[14][15]

See also

References
  1. Mroziak, Michael (February 23, 2017). "You've heard of Fat Tuesday, but there's also Fat Thursday". WFBO. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  2. Poles gorge themselves on Fat Thursday-TheNews.pl, "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 23, 2012. Retrieved February 6, 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. Fat Thursday in Poland – Lodz Post – Poland in English Archived February 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Attack of the Giant Bananas: Germany Kicks off Carnival" Archived May 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Tyrone Daily Herald (February 7, 1996): 9. via Newspapers.com
  5. "Mark in Germany" Archived May 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Lake Park News (March 2, 1972): 7. via Newspapers.com
  6. "This was 'Weiberfastnacht,' and Milady Held the Reins" Archived May 12, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Salt Lake Tribune (February 6, 1959): 35. via Newspapers.com
  7. Petra Pluwatsch: Weiberfastnacht – Die Geschichte eines ganz besonderen Tages. KiWi, Köln, ISBN 978-3-462-03805-7
  8. "'Fat Thursday' Celebrated by the Romans" Archived February 2, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Lebanon Daily News (February 27, 1930): 1. via Newspapers.com
  9. Dwight, "Carnival of Venice Opens" Archived May 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine The Times (Philadelphia) (February 10, 1899): 7. via Newspapers.com
  10. Marie Corelli, Vendetta: A Story of One Forgotten Archived January 18, 2017, at the Wayback Machine (Floating Press 2015): 376. ISBN 9781776587513
  11. "Fat Thursday & Herring Night". inyourpocket.com. Archived from the original on February 7, 2016. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
  12. "Poland celebrates 'Fat Thursday'". thenews.pl. Archived from the original on February 7, 2016. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
  13. Ora W. L. Slater, "Thursday before Lent is Barcelona Children's Day" Archived May 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine El Paso Herald (June 25, 1928): 10. via Newspapers.com
  14. Maxine Buren, "February Has Many Pre-Lenten Holidays" Archived May 12, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Oregon Statesman (February 13, 1960): 6. via Newspapers.com
  15. "Catholic Recipe: Dolmas" Archived September 13, 2015, at the Wayback Machine Catholic Culture.org.
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