San Francisco

Polish „ PĄCZKI DAY ”

San Francisco Polish-American Community will celebrate the famous „Pączki Day” on Sunday, February 26, 2006, at the Parish Hall of the Church of the Nativity at 240 Fell Street. Pączki will be available at our social gathering right after the 11:00 o’clock Holy Mass (~ 12:00 Noon). Guests will have the option to buy the best plain pączki commercially made in the Bay Area in one of the ethnic bakeries or home made pączki. Coffee and tea will also be available. You can preorder pączki “to go” by sending email to poloniasfo@yahoo.com. This is a fund raiser for the Polish Church. Donations are $2 and $3 each pączki respectively.

Please join us for the traditional observance of „Pączki Day”.

All Proceeds will go to the Polish Parish General Fund

Tłusty czwartek (Fat Thursday). Some Americans celebrate Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. In Poland, however, festivities begin almost a week earlier, on Fat Thursday. Poles say that the festivities start earlier to give them more time to enjoy the last days before Lent, which strictly forbids loud parties and meat dishes. In truth, "Tłusty czwartek” started in Poland long ago when Thursday was the traditional day for over-eating before Friday’s fast. On Tłusty czwartek, Poles stuff themselves with “pączeks” while on the following Tuesday, known as Fat Tuesday throughout the world and the last day before the official start of Lent (Ash Wednesday), Poles dance and party to burn off calories and have fun before the lenten season of abstinence.

Based on the text by Ewa Orlik http://www.lsa.umich.edu/slavic/dept/WebBasedLanguage/Polish/Culture/Carnival.htm

Pączki i tłusty czwartek (Pączeks and Fat Thursday). The most popular tradition in Poland on Fat Thursday is the making and eating of pączeks. A pączek is defined as “a filled baked good in a round shape, fried in fat.” This may sound like an American doughnut, but we shouldn’t mistake a Dunkin doughnut for this traditional Polish pastry. The usual filling for pączeks is plum butter and other marmalades. In recent years, however, the variety of fillings has expanded to liquor, pudding and even whipped cream.

Confectioners of the Blikle Café (the most famous café in Warsaw) sell an average of 10,000 pączeks on a regular day. On Fat Thursday, they expect to sell about ten times more, estimating that the average Varsovian won’t eat more than 5 pączeks.

The average pączek is around 7cm (3 in) and weighs 4.5 dkg. Its caloric value is 220-230 calories, depending on the filling. To burn this amount of calories, you need to walk for 2 hours or run for over a half hour.

In 2003, the price of a pączek was around 2.50 zł (about 60¢).

Assuming that on Fat Thursday the average Pole will eat 2.5 pączeks, Poles will consume over 96 million pączeks on this day.

Based on „Tłusty czwartek” in Nasza Polonia, nr. 02-2001 http://members.tripod.com/~napolarch2000/0102/0102tlusty.html

The above materials are from:

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/slavic/dept/WebBasedLanguage/Polish/Culture/Carnival.htm

This flyer is sponsored by http://www.poloniasf.org/