so today is international waffel day. a day celebrated world-wide where people unsurpisingly are supposed to make and eat waffles. but what of the origin of these festivities?

as the tale goes, something like ~2009 years ago this lady named mary was visited by some dude named gabriel tell her that she was going to give birth to the sun of god. flash-forward to the present, and the people eat lots of waffles every march 25th.

wait... what?

is there seriously some kind of link between the mundane waffel and the savior of the christian faithful? perhaps there is some arcane symbolism between the whipped cream and strawberry jam (or maple syrup...)? or is it the influence of some ancient pagan rituals, like one finds in some of the other more well known christian holidays?

but no... turns out that this proclamation of pregnancy (the annunciation as it is known in english), is known in swedish as Vårfrudagen (translation: Our lady day). It turns out that (a) "Vårfru" sound a lot like the word "våffla", which is swedish for "waffles" and (b) swedes love waffels.

Thus, våffeldagen aka international wafflesday is born.

some other interesting waffel facts:

• there's a "national waffel day" in the states, which is conveniently on the other side of the calendar (August 24). this date commemorates the patenting of the first waffle iron by cornelius swarthout.
• the first recorded use of the waffel was apparently in the 1300's, in either greece or medeival france, depending on which parts of teh internets you visit.
• according to wikipedia's entry on waffels, in medieval france competition between after-church waffel vendors became so heated (get it??!? heated??? nyuk nyuk!) that king charles the ninth passed a law regulating a minimum distance between waffel vendors.

went over to a friends' last night for a "valvaka" party to watch the first results. oh, i baked a cake

update: link to the artist's site

well, i've already voted, and i think the general sentiment over on this side of the pond is common knowledge. still, quite nervous/anxious about what's to come.

gonna stop by the 'bolaget to make sure i'm well stocked for a loooong evening of tube watching tonight

got a nice surprise in the mail! yummy stuff that's hard/impossible to find out here... thanks mom