Fössta tossdan i mass ('First Thursday in March') is an unofficial and somewhat

tongue-in-cheek The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scott ...

national day for the '' landskap'' (traditional province) of

Småland Småland () is a historical province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means ''Small Lands''. The Latinized fo ...

in south-central

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. The basis of the celebration is the characteristic tendency of the Småland dialect to omit the sound /r/ when it comes at the beginning of a

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; as the phrase 'first Thursday in March', ''första torsdagen i mars'' in

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, has three such instances in quick succession, it makes this tic particularly conspicuous, sounding like ''fössta tossdan i mass'' when pronounced in a broad Småland accent. The holiday is celebrated with a

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cake Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, ...

(''marsipantårta'', pronounced ''massipantååta'' in the Småland accent), ideally decorated with the text ''Fössta tossdan i mass''.

Background

The holiday was founded by the Smålander Jonas Svenningson, who was amused by the way his aunt, who had a particularly strong local accent, referred to 1 March as ''fössta mass''. Building on this, he added ''tossdan'' (the Småland pronunciation of ''torsdagen'', 'the Thursday') to create the phrase ''fössta tossdan i mars'', and in February 2010 he created a

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page under this title. Already by 3 March 2010, the very first ''fössta tossdan'', the page had accumulated 500 followers. The celebration was first brought to wider attention in March 2012 by the local radio station , and it was in that same year that the idea of celebrating with a marzipan cake (or rather a ''massipantååta'') was introduced. Since then, awareness of the event has increased, and it is now regarded as Småland's unofficial national day. Some people have also come up with new ways of celebrating the day in addition to the ''massipantååta'', such as drinking ''bäss'' (i.e. ''bärs'', a

slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...

term for beer). On March 4, 2021, Smålands Turism, Destination Småland and the local government of

Kalmar County Kalmar County () is a county or '' län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Kronoberg, Jönköping, Blekinge and Östergötland. To the east in the Baltic Sea is the island Gotland. The counties are mainly administrative units. Geo ...

launched a joint

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campaign to promote Småland as a tourist destination by publicising Fössta Tossdan i Mars celebrations and by encouraging people to use Småländska expressions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fössta tossdan i mass Småland March observances Thursday observances Annual events in Sweden Events in Jönköping Events in Växjö Events in Kalmar