Pączki, or Polish doughnuts, are balls of yeast dough that are traditionally fried in lard, topped with icing sugar and typically filled with jam or marmalade.
The BNP Paribas bank estimates that Poles will eat about 100 million doughnuts on Wednesday, which means two-and-a-half pączki per inhabitant.
Bakeries, pastry shops and home cooks around Poland will use a total of about 2,500 tons of flour, 500 tons of sugar, 500 tons of butter, 1.3 million litres of milk and about 25 million eggs to prepare the delicacy.
Pączki have been the snack of choice on Tłusty Czwartek, or "Fat Thursday," since the 17th century and, according to superstition, not eating one brings bad luck for a year.
Fat Thursday is a kind of last hurrah before Lent, a period of fasting and solemn reflection for Roman Catholics in the run-up to Easter.
Fat Thursday can be compared to Shrove Tuesday or pancake Tuesday observed in some other parts of the world.
(pk)