Today is quite the interesting day in Iceland. Today is bolludagur, roughly translated to cream puff day. Bolludagur is the first of 3 consecutive festive days in Iceland. These days mark the beginning of what used to be the fast before Easter.
In Icelandic Bolla means a small round pastry. It can be either sweet or savory but on this day, in particular, they are traditionally filled with whipped cream and jam and topped with chocolate glazing. Now in the later years though, people have gotten more creative with the filling.
Traditionally you should not make or buy your own pastry on this day. For this reason, it is traditional for children to make a stick with a soft puffy end. They use that to spank their parents in the morning screaming “Bolla” repeatedly. If they manage to do this before their parents get up in the morning, their parents ow them as many pastries as they managed to spank their parents.
The other days of this 3-day festivity are Explosive Tuesday (as in eating too much and “explode”) and Ash Wednesday.
