Every January in France the Boulangerie windows are stuffed full of Galettes des Rois (above: King's Cakes). I experienced the celebration last year for the first time, but it has rolled around again and this year, Nicolas brought us one of the famous cakes and yesterday we played tradition.
It is a holiday that celebrates the gift of the Magi after Christ's birth. They are estimated to have arrived about a week or two after he was born and thus deserve a celebration of their own. Here it is. So, as tradition goes, the cake is cut, the youngest person hides under the table and instructs who should receive the pieces of cake. In one of these pieces, there is a secret and special bean, une fève - it is not an actual bean nowadays; our fève was a tiny toy bus for example. The person who bites into her cake and finds the fève is the queen and gets to choose her king. Marguerite (as was planned) found the fève in the middle of her piece of cake and selected me to be her king. I was honored.
The King, Queen and Starsky
Chloe and Nicolas
...waiting
Amaury and Nicolas
Here we have a full explanation from Xavier, Frenchman on hand. (As an aside, the most amusing part of this video is the little interaction surrounding "the fève." Classic Xavier. Classic French).
3 comments:
Love this tradition, I do it every year here...
Emilie, if you're not going to say it right, you shouldn't even try to say it at all! :-)
Fun tradition. I would like to try the cake.
Thank you for teaching us about that cool tradition that they do in France, I didn;t know about it tell know, Marguerite is so cute. I love and miss you all
love
Mels
can;t wait to see you soon!
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