Living tradition: Immediately after Christmas, Holy Week is the time with the most widespread traditions when it comes to food. Spinach on Maundy Thursday and fish on Good Friday are still found in many households – more common in some regions than others, a recent survey found.
Three out of ten people in Austria always eat spinach on Maundy Thursday, and around the same number at least occasionally. This is the result of a survey commissioned by the food company Iglo. Maundy Thursday is the fifth day of Holy Week, and Christians commemorate Jesus’ last supper on the eve of the crucifixion. According to the custom, many people eat green vegetables on the day – although the name Maundy Thursday actually derives from the word “greinen” (crying, complaining). Spinach is always on Maundy Thursday, and it is eaten most frequently by people over 50 (35 percent). And contrary to the widespread thesis that spinach is not necessarily suitable for children, the dish is often served in households with children, even somewhat more frequently than in the average domestic household (31 percent always, 30 percent occasionally). Carinthia and Styria as “spinach strongholds” “spinach strongholds” are found on Maundy Thursday, especially in the south: every second person in Carinthia and almost four out of ten Styrians stick to the food tradition. You can start less with it in the West. Three quarters of the people in Vorarlberg and around seven out of ten Tyroleans do not follow the custom. According to a survey, Vienna is divided: 50 percent don’t eat spinach here, the other half at least keep it flexible 3.3 million packs of spinach leaves. Passed spinach was bought the least often with 1.3 million packs. “Around 40 percent of iglo spinach is sold before Easter,” said Markus Fahrnberger-Schweizer, Managing Director of iglo Austria.Fish on Good FridayDuring Lent, a third more frozen fish is also sold. According to the survey, however, the tradition of eating fish on Good Friday is less widespread than spinach on Maundy Thursday: just under a fifth (22 percent) always follow this tradition, and a further 27 percent sometimes stick to it. Almost a third of the over-50s serve fish, and just over a seventh of the under-50s.Note: For the iglo trend study, Integral market and opinion research in February and March 2023 had 1,015 for iglo Austria Austrians from 18 to 69 years were interviewed online representative of this target group.
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