Epiphany
Well, the Christmas holidays are over. Work started again on January 2. Amanda left for home on January 4. All good things must end. At least the days are getting longer.
The official end of the Christmas season comes with January 6, the Feast of the Three Kings....otherwise known as Epiphany. In France, Epiphany is a bigger deal than I remember in the US. But not so big as in Spain. In Spain, it seems, Epiphany is the BIG day. Children get their gifts from the Magi on January 6 and not on Christmas as they do here. The Spanish TV channel was non-stop video of the parades and the celebrations. In Strasbourg, the only parade that we had was a labor protest. (more on that in later post.)
In France, the Epiphany tradition is centered on food. (What else??) Specifically, it centers around a pastry called a "galette des rois". Galette seems to be the word for anything round and flat. It could be a pancake, or a cake of hash browns, or a pie, or a hockey puck. Honestly, a galette could be almost anything. But for our purposes, we'll translate "galette des rois" to mean the "pie of the kings". The groceries and the boulangeries (bread stores) are full of the things. They are fairly close to what we would call a pie. The flavors we've seen are apple, cheese, raspberry, and chocolate-pear flavor. Here is a picture.
As you can see, the galette comes in a little kit with a paper crown. The tradition goes like this: hidden inside the pastry somewhere is a little toy. (One of ours was a ceramic kangaroo. The other was a ceramic mouse.) On the Feast of the Three Kings, the parents are supposed to give each of their children a slice of the pie. Whichever child finds the toy gets to wear the crown and is king for the day.
Just in case you were wondering, I found the little ceramic kangaroo. For what it's worth, I need to see a dentist now, too.
The official end of the Christmas season comes with January 6, the Feast of the Three Kings....otherwise known as Epiphany. In France, Epiphany is a bigger deal than I remember in the US. But not so big as in Spain. In Spain, it seems, Epiphany is the BIG day. Children get their gifts from the Magi on January 6 and not on Christmas as they do here. The Spanish TV channel was non-stop video of the parades and the celebrations. In Strasbourg, the only parade that we had was a labor protest. (more on that in later post.)
In France, the Epiphany tradition is centered on food. (What else??) Specifically, it centers around a pastry called a "galette des rois". Galette seems to be the word for anything round and flat. It could be a pancake, or a cake of hash browns, or a pie, or a hockey puck. Honestly, a galette could be almost anything. But for our purposes, we'll translate "galette des rois" to mean the "pie of the kings". The groceries and the boulangeries (bread stores) are full of the things. They are fairly close to what we would call a pie. The flavors we've seen are apple, cheese, raspberry, and chocolate-pear flavor. Here is a picture.
As you can see, the galette comes in a little kit with a paper crown. The tradition goes like this: hidden inside the pastry somewhere is a little toy. (One of ours was a ceramic kangaroo. The other was a ceramic mouse.) On the Feast of the Three Kings, the parents are supposed to give each of their children a slice of the pie. Whichever child finds the toy gets to wear the crown and is king for the day.
Just in case you were wondering, I found the little ceramic kangaroo. For what it's worth, I need to see a dentist now, too.
posted by jcweber at 1:18 PM
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