One essential part of celebrating the May Day (labor day) is the traditional food. You just simply need to have those delicious, sweet and crunchy donuts and sima (traditional Finnish Vappu drink)!

These donuts are called munkit (one donut = munkki) in Finnish.

Why Finnish donuts are called munkki or munkit?

Munkki means a monk. This name has been used already in the 17th century in Finland. Apparently the shape and color of the round donuts (the ones without a hole) are like a monk with a brown cape (I read this in Wikipedia, in Finnish only)

Is Finnish vappumunkki donut similar to American donuts?

If you mean glazing - no, Finnish donuts are almost never glazed, only sugared.

To my understanding there are 2 types of donut doughs used in America, one is sweet, with yeast, and similar to the one I have written on this page and the other is more muffin/cake type of dough.

Are Finnish donuts filled with jam?

There are several types of donuts in Finland. There are

• The ones with a hole in the middle ("Rinkelimunkit / Munkkirinkelit", also "Vappumunkit") that are not filled, just covered with sugar
• The Jam Donuts ("Hillomunkit") that are filled e.g. with apple or raspberry jam.
• Berlin donut or Bishop's donut ("Berliininmunkki" and at Turku area "Piispanmunkki"), a round donut that is filled with raspberry jam and dipped to a pink sugar glaze. Turku version may have also a white glaze.
• Piggie donut ("Possumunkki" or "Munkkipossu". A flatter rectangular shaped donut with a pinch on each corner (like ears or feet of the pig). Filled with apple jam. Also known as "posso" in Kotka area.
• Lörtsy (untranslatable..but definitely worth mentioning) a type of deeptried pie from Lappeenranta area. It's rolled to thin, round shapes and filled with sweet jam (or if making savory ones, with meat etc, but that is another story...) and after deep frying they have a flat half-a-moon shape and they are big! Sometimes they are also sugared.