Fat Thursday in Poland: 100 million doughnuts eaten on annual non-traditional holiday

100 million doughnuts to celebrate Fat Thursday – that’s how much fried dough Polish citizens have consumed on this day. Fat Thursday is traditionally celebrated in the last week of carnival before Lent.

This huge lineup leads to the 90 years old Warsaw café. People are ready to stay in line for hours to buy donuts which taste just like their childhood.

People are staying outside all night despite the bitter cold. They are waiting for four and even more hours dreaming about doughnuts - known as pÄczki in Poland.

We are here from 6 o’clock in the morning. But we know that first people came at 3. It’s quite cold to stay outside, but we are already close to success.

Its tradition – we have to eat pÄ…czk from the best café.

How many can you eat?

Just one.

Are you staying here just for one doughnut?

No, I will buy 10 for my family.

The limit is 20 doughnuts per person, in order for everyone to taste the traditional desert.
This is my first time here. It’s worth to stay in line for 3 hours, because this café has a long history.

First doughnut in this old café was baked by my great –grandfather in 1925.

Sylwia Tomaszewicz, the owner of the shop: "I belong to the fourth generation of doughnut-friers here. Now my husband helps me and I hope my children will also continue our tradition."

We are allowed to glance at the kitchen but not for long… we can’t hinder the harmony of the process. Bakers are conjuring frying the doughnuts in silence. They slept for just two hours this night.

Sylwia Tomaszewicz: "We were prepared to sell 8 000 doughnuts today. And every doughnut is hand-made."

The tradition of eating doughnuts on Fat Thursday in Poland goes back to the 17th century. Among bakers Fat Thursday is regarded as one of the busiest days of the year...with many cake shops open from the early hours of the morning after a marathon night of frying doughnuts. In many towns and cities, competitions are held to see who can eat the most doughnuts within a set time period. And they don’t count any calories."

Today it doesn’t matter. One kg more is not important.

Poles consider it bad luck not to eat at least one doughnut on this day.

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