Thursday, February 22, 2007

PACZKI DAY

OK so who remembers this and who still celebrates it? I know my mother's sister does.


Detroit
Michigan's first Catholic settlers were French, but the Fat Tuesday celebrations of modern times in Detroit stem from more the recent influence of the Polish Paczki Day. Locals flock to the local bakeries of Hamtramck to enjoy the large round Paczki doughnuts filled with raspberry, prune or vanilla cream. The colder climate of Michigan does not lend itself to a Carnival type celebration but the local media outlets do make a spectacle of Paczki day every year.

Anyone still celebrate pancake day? I know Ihop does down here however I think they are missled as to the meaning. They call it customer appreciation day.

14 comments:

Sean M. said...

I've never heard of this before, but it sounds yummy!! That beats what our cafeteria served on Fat Tuesday: soul food. I opted for the pizza instead.

cheryl said...

that is what Fat Tuesday is. Look on your internet. It is really pancake day. A celebration day for giving up feasting on meat.

Sean M. said...

The only story I ever heard about Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) was that people would use up all the fat stored up in their homes before Lent started on Ash Wednesday. If I remember correctly, people would use all that fat to bake lots of desserts and pastries and the like, and have big "parties." Now that I think about it, a pancake would probably be one of "the like" that I mentioned... Hmmm... I would have rathered the pancakes than the soul food!

Tim B. said...

"Locals flock to the local bakeries of Hamtramck to enjoy the large round Paczki doughnuts filled with raspberry, PRUNE or vanilla cream."

Then they rush home to the bathroom.

cheryl said...

sounds like my kind of people

cheryl said...

sounds like my kind of people

paulette said...

It would be interesting to me what the actual word paczki means. Because I am also of the opinion that they are made on Fat Tuesday because they use so much more lard than regular donuts. The local news did go into a Hamtramck bakery in the wee small hours to show them being made and the lines of customers.

The last couple of years the Casino at Windsor gave them out on Fat Tuesday but this year all we got were Mardi Gras beads.

Tim B. said...

What does one do to "earn" her Paczki?

I KNOW what she does to earn her beads. :-)

paulette said...

What??? For the beads we just had to "show" up.

Tim B. said...

I wasn't sure of the tone of the "What???", so in case you were asking "What do you mean...what DOES one do to earn her beads?"...see this site.
http://aboutmardigras.com/index.php?name=FAQ&id_cat=1#q120

In case you meant "Whaaaaat??? I would NEVER do that" then ignore.

Sean M. said...

Aunt Paulette is a classy lady. I'm sure all she had to do was ask nicely. :-D

Raoul Duke said...

Paczek, the singular form of Paczki, translates as "package".

cheryl said...

Mom says Paczki she used to pronounce it "Punchki" and it is polish for pancake. It did not have an "n" in it but she used to pronounce it that way.

paulette said...

It is still pronounced punchke around here.