Once in a year, on some Thursday, you can smell a delightful smell of yeast and brier rose lingering over the city. This day is called the Fat Thursday. Shops’ and Bakeries’ shelves are crammed with yeast cakes. People passing you by bring full boxes, bags and plates of doughnuts and “faworki”. What and why is it for?

The Fat Thursday has different date in a calendar every year. It is the last Thursday before the Ash Wednesday which is the beginning of Lent.

The Fat Thursday is as important in the Polish tradition as even people on a diet try a doughnut that day. According to the tradition everybody should eat at least 1 doughnut to be in luck for the whole year. A traditional Polish doughnut differs from those well-known in the West Europe and America. Our doughnut is a fluffy ball in the size of a hand, made from yeast cake, stuffed with jam or brier rose. Doughnuts are covered by powdered sugar, coconut sprinkle, candied orange peel or sugar icing. However, doughnuts are not the only cakes that are eaten on the Fat Thursday. “Faworki”, called also “chrusty” are typical cookies too. These are small, wavy and crunchy yeast cookies covered by powdered sugar. They are as soft and light as they melt in your mouth. Similar cakes can be found only in Germany and Austria.

Recent looking of doughnuts extremely differs from the old times of Poland. Nowadays, people buy or bake doughnuts and eat them together with relatives and friends trying new tastes. However, the shape, looking and even the taste of recent doughnuts are slightly different from the old ones.

Many years ago, the Fat Thursday was celebrated as a long festivity where fat dishes and meat were on tables.  Doughnuts were baked from bread cake. They were stuffed with pork scratching and covered by fat. Celebration involved carnival plays and sleigh parties. Such ways of fun were to joy before the period of the Lent – sad and full of praying time. Moreover, during celebrations all fat meat and food forbidden during the Lent was eaten so larders became empty.  People used to celebrate from the Fat Thursday till the midnight of Tuesday, when the Lent starts.

To feel the real atmosphere of Polish tradition you need to try doughnuts that are offered by Lublin’s Bakeries. Remember that in the Fat Thursday doughnuts taste incredibly delicious. Try at least one doughnut that day, as the tradition says – to be in luck.