Expert shares about main dishes of Fat Thursday and how to prepare for Ash Wednesday
In Western tradition, Mardi Gras [French for ‘Fat Tuesday’] is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Catholic Lent, the last day of Carnival. This holiday marks the end of the seven ‘fat days’. The Deputy Director of the Grodno Regional Methodical Centre for Folk Art, Natalia Romanovich, explains that in the Grodno Region, there is a tradition of ‘Fat Thursday’, which is celebrated on February 8th this year. What is the main attribute of this day and how should one prepare for Ash Wednesday?
“Most importantly, our ancestors had a lot of fatty meat dishes on their tables: various hams, sausages, intestines, offal, salceson, bigos and stew. On Fat Thursday poorer families ate the same dishes as on weekdays, such as bigos, krupnik [soup] and potato babka [baked grated potato pie, dressed with fried meat and onions], although they tried to add as much fat as possible in it - fry a couple of sausage rings so that the fat would float on top. Doughnuts and ‘khrusty’ [Belarusian for angel wings] were popular pastries,” the expert noted.
“At midnight before Ash Wednesday all the festivities were already ending and it was also impossible to consume all those fatty delicacies,” Natalia Romanovich added.
This year, the forty-day period of repentance will begin on Ash Wednesday, February 14th. Catholics traditionally go to church on Wednesday, where the priest sprinkles ashes on their heads, reminding them to repent. Until Easter, the worshippers abstain from consuming animal products and do not attend entertainment events.
