Laskiainen, also known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday, is a celebration before Easter and it has a lot of Christian traditions behind it. Nowadays in southern Europe carnivals are a popular way of celebrating this tradition, but in Finland laskiainen is celebrated by downhill sledding and eating traditional foods such as pea soup and shrove buns; laskiaispulla!
The name “laskiainen” has a few different meanings. First of all it means preparing for the fasting and leaving the meat out of the food. This thought comes from Christianity. The other one comes from the Latin name of laskiainen; “carne lasciare”. The Finns have formed their word from the ending of the Latin one. Clever, isn’t it?
Laskiainen is really popular among children and young people. Every year they take their sleds and go downhill sledding with them. Even our Dutch students had the chance to try it last week! Oh how much fun we had. Today the media team also tried laskiaispulla with jam. There is also one with almond paste. This is what they thought about it.
Amazing! I loved it. The whipped cream was probably the best part of the bun. Sam van der Plas
I liked it! So tasty and sweet, absolutely loved it!They were so big it was a bit hard to eat. Joost Barnhoorn
Well, it was the same as every year, GOOD! I like the whipped cream, it’s my favourite part! Venla Aitta
I seriously love them! I always forget how tasty they are and can’t wait to have more! Arsi Paananen
The media team weren’t the only ones who got to taste them! OSYK provided every student one as a dessert after the traditional pea soup! But was there any differences between the ones from the café and the ones from school? Yes there was. The ones from school were drier and didn’t have as much jam or whipped cream in them. They were still pretty tasty though.
Text: Arsi Paananen
Pictures: Arsi Paananen