Lentorama 2021: Take Your Holiday to Go

Day 20: Bolludagur

Another Lent-related food day, this one started in Norway and Denmark but it now best known as an Icelandic observance. Happening on Shrove Monday, kids would decorate a small stick with colorful paper, and then use that to spank their parents while yelling "bolla," the Icelandic word for bun.

As a reward, the kids would get what looks like a cream puff, which has a cream and jam filling and a chocolate coating (or get one for each time they were able to spank a parent). The spanking has apparently fallen by the wayside, but eating the buns has now. According to this article, Icelanders eat more than a million of these buns every year.

I'm not sure how this holiday ties into Lent, though the Wikipedia article on it suggested the spanking stick was inspired by the wand used by priests to sprinkle holy water on people during services (also known as an aspergillum).