Yea, verily, said the Lord, on the fifth and twentieth day of March it shall be lighter out in the evenings and the spring shall arriveth, and ye shall eat waffles. Fiat voluntas tua!
It’s Waffle Day! Put your hands in the air and shake it like you just don’t care! Say it with me: YAY WAFFLES!
Waffle Day is one of those bizarre Swedish traditions that you just learn about and shake your head in bemusement (NOT amusement, Sheryl!) over and then enjoy. It’s technically the Feast of the Annunciation, but I’m not sure Maria and her pal the Angel Gabriel ever chowed down on heart-shaped waffles with raspberry jam and whipped cream. Their loss.
The reason why the Feast of the Annunication is celebrated as Waffle Day? It’s like a bad game of Telephone run amok. It’s Vårfrudagen in Swedish, which literally translates as The Day of Our Lady, and it’s pronounced vore-fru-dog-en. “Waffles” in Swedish is våfflor, which is pronounced voh-floor. So, if you say Vårfrudagen really fast in Swedish it sounds like The Day of Waffles. And apparently it was such a good idea that it caught on, and now it’s not only Swedish, it’s actually OFFICIALLY International Waffle Day!*
We had our waffles this afternoon, with Anders’ parents and his sister’s family in Oxie, after having a big Easter buffet, where, before eating them, we thunked our hard-boiled eggs against each other in an attempt to crunch in theirs without our own being crunched. That sentence just did not work. I would try again but I doubt it’s worth it. The moon was glowing round and full through the foggy haze as we drove home in the pale twilight, still pretty light out even at 7 p.m. A huge flock of seagulls wheeled overhead at one point, and later we saw swans sailing serenely on the ponds outside of Gårdstånga.
Anders brought home chicken-shaped marshmallow Easter candies from Italy for the kids and they taste like PEEPS! I’m in heaven!
Tomorrow: coloring eggs!
Really Great Writing Out There Right Now: Believe Street
Hippity Hoppity Bouncing Birthday Wishes to esmecat!
*Not to be confused with the American National Waffle Day which falls on August 24th and commemorates the first patented waffle iron.