There's telltale evidence of Paczki Day everywhere in the region today: the tantalizing scent of the frying butter-rich dough, the lines forming at local bakeries in the predawn hours, powdered sugar dusting chins and chests.
What started decades ago as a pre-Lenten Polish tradition evolved into a pseudo holiday about a decade ago through marketing and promotion. Paczki Day, which consists only of procuring and eating the calorie-rich cakes, now has cash registers ringing as thousands of the pastries are purchased at the area's in-store and standalone bakeries.
Thus, the Fat Tuesday pastry puts wide smiles not only on the faces of consumers but on those of exhausted bakers who've been up all night frying the cakes and stuffing them with the traditional fillings: apricot, red raspberry, cream cheese, Bavarian creme, strawberry and prune. Some nontraditional fillings include key lime and banana mouse.
"It's always our biggest single day of the year," said Tammy Wilson, daughter of Cakes by Karen owner Ed Wonter. "Everyone here will work 12 hours or more."
The Highland bakery has orders for the majority of the 5,000 paczki it planned to make for the holiday, which immediately precedes Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the 40-day Christian period of fast and abstinence. The bakery's supply should last through the day because the store makes them in a continuous cycle, Wilson said.
The paczki were a surprise to Paul Steffens, owner of Steffens Bakery in Calumet City, when he bought the business in 1967.
"I didn't know what they were when people came in and asked for them," he said Monday. "Our second year we made 40 to 60 dozen, and then in the past 10 years, it's skyrocketed. This year we'll make 1,000 dozen. Paczki Day surpasses Christmas. It's bigger than Easter Saturday. It's our biggest single day of the year."
Tina Beck, of Beck's Crown Bakery in Crown Point, said every year the bakery "makes and sells more" paczki.
"The day before Lent, people gorge themselves on their sweet decadence and then no sweets for the next 40 days," said Beck, who was planning on making between 450 and 500 dozen for today and more to sell Tuesdays and Fridays through Easter.
The 25 grocery stores owned by Strack & Van Til Inc. and operated under four brands began selling paczki two weeks ago "because people love them so much," said Jeffrey Naaman, director of bakery for the organization.
"Tomorrow will be incredible," he said Monday. "We'll make more than 10,000 in our 25 stores. We've had orders for more than 100 dozen from businesses, family get-togethers. We have a very solid day for a Tuesday, normally not a big day. We'll be frying around the clock to keep up with demand."
Chuck's Bakery in Valparaiso was closed three days in early February because of a fire, but reopened in plenty of time to serve the Paczki Day crowd.
"It's a big day," said a bakery clerk, who didn't want her named used. "We've already taken a lot of call-in orders. We'll open at 4:30 (a.m.), and we have orders going out at that time. We hope to have enough to satisfy everyone."
The limited season for paczki is what makes it so desirable, bakery workers said.
"If we made them all the time, they wouldn't be as special," said Donna Strickland, manager of Calumet Bakery in Whiting, which started taking orders for the pastry more than three weeks ago.
"It would lose its pizzazz," said Beck, who offered one bit of advice for those celebrating Paczki Day. "Don't wear black or navy."
