Tradition of the Swedish Semla - Fettisdag

I just wanted to share the tradition of Fettisdag ("fatty day") / Semla (name comes from the latin simila - wheat flour. Semla is a combination of a tart and a bun - not to confuse with the old Swedish girl name Selma - as in one of the famous Swedish writer in the end of 1800 - Selma Lagerlöf - that is the first women to get the Nobel price in literature)



 

Fettisdagen is today - and is ordinary somewhere in between 3d of February and 9th of March - It always indicates that it is 47 days before Easter. From the beginning it was a religious tradition but today it is only about eating the Semla bun and no one remembers why we do it.

The Semla bun originated already in the 1500 century and is in its ordinary shape a wheat bun, the size so you can just grab it by one hand but preferably you should use both your hands. The top is cut of, the bun is hollowed and filled a cream of chops (cheap marzipan) above this you get a thick layer of whipped cream - that will make the bun get twice the high, and on the "lid" (some cut round and some in the shape of a triangle) of the Semla bun you get some flour sugar - just to make sure that it really gets sweet. Another tradition is to eat the Semla in "hetvägg" - that is hot milk that you put in a bowl and put the Semla in so it gets all soaked. There is as divided opinions about eating the Semla in hetvägg as it is wheatear god exists or not.  

 

Only a few years ago it was holy not to eat, bake or sell any Semla bun before the Fettisdagen - actually it was forbidden to eat it other than on the fettisdag (removed in 1960). Until lately it has been allowed to eat it some weeks after. But you could never get a Semla bun in or after the summer until the next Fettisdag. But lately the rules for this tradition has blurred out and now you can eat/buy and bake a Semla almost any time in the year - without getting banned from Swedish society.

 

Other rules around the Semla has also been passed as the look and taste of the Semla bun has now been innovated in a variety of different shapes and tastes. The latest that I heard about is the Wrap semla, the Nutella semla,  the Danish pastry semla, Vanilla Semla, small Semla and so on. Who knows where this tradition will end, it will not surprise me if we soon see a Christmas Semla.  If you do not know what a Semla is and have tasted one - you can not be from Sweden.