West Bend, WI – The folks at Interfaith Caregivers of Washington County will have a big box full of Patzki to share on Fat Tuesday.
Tradition has it that those who were preparing for Lent and fasting were to take all the food and drink from their homes that didn’t coincide with whatever they would eat while fasting to the Lord. Typically, it was foods saturated with fat (dairy, lard), meat, and sugar to be replaced with fish and non-fat/meat/sugar food alternatives.
What foods are traditionally eaten on Fat Tuesday are various but still cater to the belief of eating those without fat/meat/sugar. England prepares pancakes for the holiday (even calling it Pancake Day), Poland declares it Paczki Day and consumes jelly-filled donuts, and the United States rounds it out with fried Po’Boys, several types of meat, and lots of fried food.
History note from Thought.com
After Fat Tuesday, meat and dairy and eggs would all be preserved in various ways and brought out again for the Easter feast (which lasted a full eight days, from Easter Sunday through the Sunday after Easter, known today as Divine Mercy Sunday). Thus, the voluntary giving up of foods that are good in themselves to focus on spiritual growth was both preceded and followed by the recognition of the good things that God has given us.
