Today we celebrated Doughnut Sunday. Now Doughnut Sunday is definitely Emma’s kind of holiday! What? You don’t celebrate Doughnut Sunday? Well then, I must teach you about this holiday which Emma loved so much.
Doughnut Sunday was originated by my mother when her children started leaving the nest. She found that she could always lure us back with the celebration of a holiday. But even after celebrating Christmas, New Year’s, Chinese New Year, Superbowl Sunday, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, etc., etc., she found herself wanting her family around more. So, she invented Doughnut Sunday.
Doughnut Sunday takes place on a Sunday in February. It has been known to be celebrated on a Sunday in January but, according to tradition, it must occur before March. The festival revolves around eating my mother’s old-fashioned homemade fried doughnuts. My mother was the chief doughnut chef until recently, when my brother assumed that role. The recipe they use has been passed down in our family for generations and it is like no other doughnut I’ve tasted. The doughnuts are deep-fried and then, when they are still warm, they are shaken in powdered or cinnamon sugar. I like mine in powdered sugar. Emma did, too. The real purists eat them plain, straight out of the grease. My favorites are the doughnut holes. My mother was serving these to us way before Dunkin Donuts started serving Dunkin Munchkins.
There are no real rules to Doughnut Sunday, except that you are not allowed to count how many doughnuts someone eats. That would be rude. We are a competitive family, however, so in the days before my generation all ended up on cholesterol medication, the more competitive of us would brag about how many we had been able to down. The winner paid a big price, though. The doughnuts are quite heavy and hard to digest, so if you don’t use discretion, Doughnut Sunday can be followed by Stomach Ache Monday.
One of the things Emma liked about this holiday was that it was all our own. She loved the reaction when she told someone she was unavailable because it was Doughnut Sunday. People were usually pretty jealous that she was heading off to a family gathering where the only expectation was that she would eat lots of doughnuts. What’s not too love?!
My Grandmother always held Doughnut Sunday on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. She was from Austro-Hungary and this was a tradition she brought with her to America. I've read where this is supposed to be on Shrove Tuesday in Wikipedia but our Grandma's tradition was Sunday afternoon after church. All the cousins would come and we would play board games and tell stories and eat wonderful homemade doughnut that were made on the gas & wood capable stove.
ReplyDelete