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How Detroit Adopted and Expanded the Paczki Tradition for Fat Tuesday
- On Tuesday, February 17, 2026, Chicago-area bakeries, including New Palace Bakery in Hamtramck, saw customers lining up early on February 17 before the store's opening for Paczki Day.
- Historically, Paczki Day stems from Christian practice of using rich ingredients before Lent, with Ash Wednesday starting the Lenten period, and expanded to Chicago via Polish immigrants.
- With 40,000 paczki prepared, National Bakery and Deli staff across three Milwaukee locations worked to meet demand, while Kiedrowski's Bakery reported about 1,700 dozen pre-orders and early customer arrivals seeking specialty flavors.
- Residents have until 3 p.m. to visit any of National Bakery locations in Milwaukee, Brookfield, and Greenfield for paczki pickup; bakeries planned giveaways, polka band, and will stay open until orders are filled.
- Beyond tradition, the paczki tradition spread beyond Polish neighborhoods into Midwest culture, aided by Carl Richardson , while Eastern Market Brewing Company, Detroit City Distillery, and Cantoro Italian Market showcased inventive paczki beer, vodka, and fusion flavors this year.
15 Articles
15 Articles
The Metro: Paczki Day highlights Polish culture and history - WDET 101.9 FM
For practicing Catholics, today is the last day to indulge in some of your favorite snacks and treats before lent—and a Paczki might be the sweetest snack of all. Fat Tuesday or Paczki day has become a staple celebration in metro Detroit since Polish immigrants first migrated here in the 1910s. Michigan is home to over 740,000 Polish Americans. Only New York and Illinois have more. Most Polish immigrants originally lived in the city of Hamtramck…
Paczki Day Challenge: Who can eat a Paczki the fastest
In honor of Paczki Day, I organized the first ever televised Paczki Day Eating Competition (on an overcast day outside the Public Market while the Olympics were happening and Jupiter is in retrograde).Since moving to Wisconsin in 2019, I have covered seven Paczki Days. I have reported on preparations the day before, done live interviews with the first people in line to buy paczki at 5 a.m., asked people how to spell Paczki, and featured differen…
St Louis Post-Dispatch
Chippewa HeraldWhat is paczki and how do you pronounce it?
It's Fat Tuesday, so pastry cases are full of paczki.
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