Bretzelsonndeg (“Pretzel Sunday”) takes place 20 days before Easter. Because of this date, the day is also called Halleffaaschtensonndeg (“Half Lent Sunday”), which is on 27 March this year.

With the beginning of spring and spring feelings resurfacing, in Luxembourg a boy will give a sweet almond pretzel to the girl he has laid his eyes on. In case the feelings are mutual, and the girl is interested, she will offer him a chocolate egg in return on Easter Sunday. This leaves her 20 days to consider her options.

In the days of yore, the eggs were real and if the girl wasn’t interested, she would give the man an empty basket instead. If you’ve ever heard the expression “De Kuerf kréien” (receiving a basket), you know it means getting dumped.

Men who are already taken should offer their sweetheart a pretzel to re-emphasise their tender feelings for their partner. In a leap year, it’s the other way around and women take the lead.

Until the middle of the 20th century Bretzelsonndeg was a local custom, only popular around the Moselle and Sûre rivers. Nowadays, it is celebrated by everyone in Luxembourg, and all kinds of varieties of pretzels are sold at bakeries for weeks ahead of the matchmaking day.

Happy Bretzelsonndeg!

Native Luxembourger Carole Miltgen is CEO of , a project and document management firm in the funds sector.