Who knew there were so many meanings for the term “Fat Tuesday?”
Down south, New Orleanians and other sinful revelers are celebrating Mardi Gras, the last day you have to get all of the sins out of your system before you have to repent from all of them on Ash Wednesday.
King Cake, a flaky, cinnamon roll-like dessert is served along with the booze and the beads through the Mardi Gras season up until Fat Tuesday.
In the U.K. and Australia, Tuesday is Pancake Day — the last chance you are allowed to eat rich foods before you are supposed to give them up for Lent.
To the Pennsylvania Dutch, today is Fasnacht Day, or Doughnut Day. Traditionally, the fasnacht is made from all of the ingredients that are supposed to be forsaken during Lent: sugar, butter, eggs and flour. The doughnuts can be round with or without a hole, diamond-shaped or twisted. Fasnachts can be covered in powdered sugar or cinnamon, or stuffed with cream or peanut butter.
While many of these traditions are to be adhered to for religious reasons, Fasnacht Day brings a more ominous element to the Lenten season: If you don’t eat a doughnut today, you will have bad luck and/or lice for the rest of the year, or so goes the Czech superstition.
“It’s the same as Mardi Gras — it is a crazy superstition,” said Victoria, a director of government affairs on K Street, and the woman who warned The Daily Caller about the consequences of failing to eat a Czech pastry today. “I am actually searching to buy a doughnut right now.”
As long as you get yourself to Krispy Kreme before the day is over, you should remain lice-free for the rest of the year. (This is not a guarantee — we don’t know what you do in your spare time.)