Bolludagur is the Monday at the beginning of lent and this year it comes up on the 19th of February. Even though the name, bolludagur, is fairly young this day has been celebrated for over a hundred years in Iceland.
It is believed that the custom of bun day came to Iceland from either Denmark or Norway in the second half of the nineteenth century, introduced by bakers from those countries. Nevertheless, bolludagur is celebrated quite differently in Iceland than in the mainland Scandinavian countries. On the morning of bolludagur, children (and some pervy adults) spank people with the so called bolludagsvöndur, which is a decorated whacking stick. Today most kids make their own sticks in school, decorating it with all kinds of colored paper. The goal is to manage to spank people before they get out of bed, and receive a prize, which in Iceland is always rjómabolla, a cream bun.
The buns have mostly been of two kinds, vatnsdeigsbollur, which are similar to French puff pastry which can be bought here in Canada, and gerbollur, which are made with yeast. My mom makes the best vatnsdeigsbollur!! But I am biased...
The spanking part probably has its origin in the spanking and pain that people went through for remorse during the fast, to remember the pain of Jesus. After the reformation in Iceland this custom changed mostly into comedy. (We take our religion very seriously!)
The eating of buns are also leftovers of older customs, when people where supposed to only eat white food during the fast. Slowly, with more money, that white food got better and better until the cream buns became the symbol of the day. In the mainland Scandinavian countries, this white food seemed to have been more connected to the following tuesday, Shrove Tuesday (called sprengidagur or exploding day in Iceland).
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