Friday is Wähentag (tart day) in Switzerland. It’s not that common anymore these days with people’s modern eating habits but you can still find lots of bakeries across Switzerland advertising Friday as Wähentag, often selling an impressive variation of sweet and salty tarts – usually large ones cut into 10-15 individually sold slices. The origin of the Wähentag lies in the fact that traditionally Christians don’t eat meat on Fridays. Again, these days with more and more people not going to church anymore and more people following a flexitarian or vegetarian lifestyle anyways, the meat free Friday is taking a back seat. When I was a child in the 1980ies it was still a big thing, even in non religious families. In my family the meat free Friday was strictly adhered to, we used to either eat fish or a sweet or savoury tarts. I do like traditions as these are the things that turn into childhood memories. In my family we don’t have the meat free Friday or Wähentag but writing this article I think I’m going to introduce it again. We don’t eat meat every day at all but I think it would be a lovely tradition anyway. To get you inspired for a Friday or any other day in the week, here’s the list of all Little Zurich Kitchen Swiss tart recipes.
