My New Favorite Holiday: Fastelavn!

Move over Valentine’s Day, there’s a new best February holiday in town. 

(A handy-dandy graphic for this awesome Danish tradition)

For those of you who un-initiated, Fastelavn is a traditional Christian Northern European holiday celebrated throughout Denmark and fellow Scandinavian countries alike. As I have heard it talked about by fellow Danes, the tradition started as a way to observe the time in between Christmas and Lent, where individuals completed a series of “fast-evenings” until Ash Wednesday, or the day before Lent begins. Then, on the day of Fastelavn itself, a grand celebration begins! People who have fasted all this time can enjoy a sweet treat for all their hard work(called a fastelavnsboller - literally fastelavns-bun), bring their children trick-or-treating, and take part in a ton of Carnival festivities before ringing in the new Lenten Season. 

(Another DIS poster describing the fastelavnsboller - much more on this later)

Ok, so I’ve described Fastelavn, but how is the actual tradition celebrated? Well, as the wonderfully attached posters describe(thank you DIS!), the physical day of celebration itself is a mixture of Halloween and Mardi Gras, where children go door-to-door hunting for pieces of candy or “hitting the cat out of the barrel” for, you guessed it, more candy. DIS was actually kind enough to throw a Fastelavn celebration for all of us on the Friday before the festival, so we could get a taste of what exactly this newfangled celebration was about.

(look at all those festivities!)

And it was fantastic! We got to eat our own fastlavnsboller, decorate our own Fastelavns mask, and try our hand at “hitting the cat out of the barrel,” which is basically just code for hitting a giant wooden piñata with a picture of a cat pinned on it until it breaks apart. Apparently whoever breaks open the barrel first, spilling out all the candy, recieves a small crown and is called the kattedronning(“queen of cats”); and whoever knocks down the last piece of the barrel tied to the string holding it up recieves a large crown and is dubbed the kattekonge(“king of cats”). This year, I was lucky enough to not only break open the barrel and spill out all the candy, but I also made the barrel fall off the string, making me both the queen and king of cats this Fastelavn!!!

(me with me two crowns of Fastelavn - the small one is inside the large one of course)

But the season of Fastelavn keeps on coming! Basically all throughout the months of January and February, each bakery in Denmark does their take on a fastelavnsboller - a sweet, delicious pastry bun usually filled with cream. So far I’ve had fastelavnsboller from bakeries such as BUKA, Hart, Mad & Kaffe, and even the Danish Royal Library - each with their own unique fillings such as cherry, vanilla, and even passionfruit. All of them were completely distinct, completely extravagant, and completely delicious.

(A grouping of passionfruit fastelavnsboller from Mad & Kaffe - doesn’t that look divine?)

However, I believe that my favorite experience this Fastelavn had to be when I tried Noma’s take on a fastelavnsboller. Yes, you heard me right. The Noma, one of the most internationally recognized restaurants in the world. Although the restaurant itself is currently abroad in Los Angeles for this season, they have a small pop-up around where their existing Danish eatery resides called the Noma Projects Shop, where the restaruant organizes special food-related events, including for Fastelavn. For only each Saturday and Sunday in February, the Projects Shop opens at 10am and serves fastelavnsboller until they run out, making it quite the hot-topic item for flourishing foodies like myself. So while other people were off making Valentine’s Day plans and sleeping in, I stood in line for almost a full hour in the near-freezing February temperatures to try and get the highest-quality bite of a traditional Danish pastry.

(The one and only Noma fastelavnsboller - complete with filterkaffe of course)

AND OF COURSE IT WAS WORTH IT! The fastelavnsboller itself was a choux pastry cut in half and filled with a vanilla custard dipped in cocoa butter, sandwiched in between a hazelnut praline spread dusted with raspberry, blackcurrant, and blueberry powder. I mean, c’mon. What I lost for in the sensation of my fingers I made up for with unimaginable deliciousness, as well as an indelible memory experiencing food at one of the world’s leading restaurants. We really should be celebrating this holiday more often!

(The line to get into the Noma projects shop - more than a bit chilly!)

But that’s all I have for this time! I hope you all learned something about this really neat Danish holiday. I’m just glad I was able to be apart of the festivities and eat some amazing pastries all the while engaging with a tradition that I had no idea existed otherwise. I hope when next year rolls around, I can observe Fastelavn as well as my own personal holidays in tandem with one another, broadening my international and cultural horizons as a result. Until then, I hope you find a fastelavnsboller(or any yummy pastry for that matter) while they’re still around!

(A t-shirt saying "Try New Things" inside the Noma Projects shop - a new favorite slogan of mine)