Why Swedes ate one million pizzas last Thursday
Sound familiar? It’s the first day of the year and you’ve barely slept. You’re too tired to even make coffee - so of course you wouldn’t dare think about cooking.
Nyårspizza - or New Year’s pizza has become a bit of a modern tradition. After a long night of partying and celebrating the end of the year, many Swedes crave pizza.
We have some infamous pizza toppings - from the fascinating but understandable saucy kebab pizzas - to the less inspiring shrimp + banana + curry variety. The Swedish pizza spectrum is wide and terrifying, depending on your preferences..
Anyway, it has been estimated that approximately 1 000 000 pizzas are eaten on the first day of the year in Sweden. (double the usual average of 500k!)
Some journalists uncovered that this tradition was more or less created by years of pizza companies pushing articles about pizza as the definite New Year’s Day food. It wasn’t a thing when I grew up, but I suspect that pizza is just generally a food many Swedes appreciate when battling a hangover.
So - this is your sign to enjoy a pizza in the coming week. With bananas if you dare ;)
- Oscar
