Fat Tuesday

Today, the first Tuesday in the Lent, is “Fat Tuesday” (fettisdagen). It’s one of the important traditions in Sweden, although it’s not a holiday. And what do we do? As in many other traditions, what we eat is the thing. We eat a special kind of filled buns, “semla”. It’s basically a plain sweet bun spiced with cardamom. After you have baked it you dig a little hole in it and fill it with almond crème, top it with whipped cream and powder with icing sugar. You can eat it as it is or put it in a bowl of hot milk.

I guess almost everyone in Sweden eats at least one of these today. I got mine at my job. So no carnevals. No sing and dance at the streets. No extravagance eating and drinking. Just eat a “semla” and then you are ready for a month of lent. Or not. I don’t know anyone who do the lent, at least not of religious reasons. But I like the tradition of eating “semlor”. You can by them from Christmas to Easter, but no other time for the year. So it’s one of the things you look forward to after Christmas, since it’s some kind of sign that the year is turning.