Every March, my partner and I host a brunch and tell our guests to bring a bowl of waffle batter. We invite all the friends and family, geeks and hippies, awesome, quirky, intelligent people we can, and they all co-mingle over a chaotic five hour feast of every type of experimental waffle you can imagine.
Ok, that’s not true. I can imagine a lot of waffles. Snozzberry waffles. But we’ve had chocolate waffles, chocolate mint waffles, blueberry waffles, jalapeno corndog waffles, taco waffles, bacon waffles, peanut butter banana waffles, pumpkin waffles, and all sorts of regular old waffles, made with everything from Bisquick to home grown goose eggs. We’ve had four waffle makers going at a time, and we always end up with batter-globbed counters at the end of the day.
Here’s how that started.
In Sweden, yesterday was Våffeldagen. The Waffle Day.
Have you not heard of Våffeldagen?
I first learned about Våffeldagen from Craig Ferguson, during a time in my life when I watched The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson with zealous obsession on a regular basis.
He starts talking about Våffeldagen a bit around 5:20. The embed function isn’t working right now, so here’s the link:
Craig Ferguson on Våffeldagen.
Needless to say, my partner and I celebrated a slightly belated Våffeldagen the very next day. Nothing extravagant, just a batch of waffles with some leftover Santa chocolate chips thrown in.
The next year, when March 25th rolled around, we had the following awesome conversation, which planted the seed for what Våffeldagen would become:
“Hey, isn’t today Vaffeldagn?”
“I guess it is.”
“Let’s have some waffles.”
“Ok.”
“Can they be chocolate?”
“Ok. Can you find a chocolate waffle recipe?”
“Ok.”
You see, at this point, Våffeldagen wasn’t yet Våffeldagen. Except for in Sweden. For me, Våffeldagen was still on the level of President’s Day. As in, you have to ask, “Isn’t it President’s Day?” Then, whatever the answer is, you go about your life and don’t really do anything.
Except with Våffeldagen, we didn’t really do anything, plus we ate a waffle. From what I’ve read, that’s basically how it goes down in Sweden.
In late 2010 and early 2011, a series of events turned the Waffle Day into a Big Deal.
Here is the timeline:
- August 2010 I find a job after a long stretch of unemployment.
- October 2010 As a productive member of society*, I move into my first apartment with my partner.
- December 2010 At Christmas, our relatives mainly give us things we need for our apartment. My brother buys us a square waffle maker. Dan’s brother buys us a Belgian waffle maker. We do not tell either of them that we already have a waffle maker, and could the gift be returned for something else we need?
- Winter 2011 We remember Våffeldagen in advance instead of on the day itself.
And here is the math:**
2 waffle makers + 1 apartment + remembering in advance = inviting people over for waffles
Inviting people over for waffles x the idea of looking up different waffle recipes on the internet x “We are lazy and don’t want to cook a bajillion waffles.” =
“Let’s have a Våffeldagen potluck and invite other humans and tell them to each bring their own waffle batter.”
And that’s the story Våffeldagen, at least our Våffeldagen, and why I’ll be having a ton of people over this weekend cooking a ton of waffles. One day, it shall be the stuff of legend.
*Society still hasn’t sent me a membership card.
**If my brother (he of the square waffle maker) sees waffle math, he will hate it. Greg, I’m not sorry.