4 October
Kanelbullens dag
How to say it
Cinnamon Bun Day falls on 4 October and celebrates the Swedish kanelbulle. It is a recent invention: Hembakningsrådet, an association of flour, yeast, sugar and margarine producers, created it in 1999 to get people baking at home again.
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Where it comes from
The word bulle has been part of Swedish since the 17th century, and breads called kanelbulle are recorded from at least the 1850s. They were not yet the bun people know today.
The modern version was probably created in the 1920s. After the First World War, butter and sugar became easier to get, and bakers began filling sweet dough with butter, sugar and cinnamon and topping it with pearl sugar. Even so, the kanelbulle only became common in the 1950s.
Hembakningsrådet, the Home Baking Council, was founded in 1959 by producers of yeast, flour, sugar and margarine. Its aim was to encourage home baking. Today it is run by the sugar company Dansukker.
In 1999, for the council's 40th anniversary, its project manager Kaeth Gardestedt created Cinnamon Bun Day. She chose 4 October because she wanted an autumn date that would not compete with apple festivals, goose dinners, crayfish parties or surströmming.
Since 2004 the day has appeared in the Swedish almanac. It is also marked in Finland and among Swedes abroad, including many congregations of the Church of Sweden overseas.
How it is celebrated today
On 4 October people have fika with cinnamon buns at work, at school, in cafés and at home. According to Visit Sweden, more than half of Swedish employers treat their staff to buns that day. Most people buy theirs: the day's official website says 76 per cent buy and 24 per cent bake their own.
The Swedish bun is less sweet and less rich than the American cinnamon roll, and the dough usually contains cardamom. It is topped with pearl sugar rather than icing. Shapes vary: swirl, knot, long loaf or wreath.
Words for the day
Tap a word to hear it.
- A coffee break with something sweet, at home or at work.
- Cinnamon bun. Plural: kanelbullar.
- Pearl sugar, the white nibs on top.
- Cardamom, the spice in the dough.
On the table
- kanelbulle
- The Swedish cinnamon bun: cardamom dough, a butter, sugar and cinnamon filling, pearl sugar on top.
- kanellängd
- The same dough shaped into a long loaf and cut into slices.
- kanelkrans
- The same dough shaped into a wreath.
- kaffe
- Coffee, the bun's partner at fika.
From Chile
In Sweden 4 October is autumn, and the date was chosen precisely to give autumn a celebration of its own. In Chile it falls in the middle of spring, with the days getting longer rather than shorter, and it still works as its founder intended: a reason to bake at home.