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The Mardi Gras King Cake
With the start of Mardi Gras season I figured I would do a few post relating to Mardi Gras. I am going to start with one of the most popular foods during this time.The "king cake" takes its name from the biblical kings. In Catholic tradition, the Solemnity of Epiphany is commemorated on January 6 and celebrates the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child. The Eve of Epiphany (the night of January 5) is popularly known as Twelfth Night. The season for king cake extends from the end of the Twelve D [...]
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New Year’s Traditions
New Year’s Day in some form or another is humankind’s oldest holiday. It dates back to the Babylonians, where an eleven day festival at the vernal equinox was held to celebrate the new year. There was great feasting and drinking to honor the bounty of the god Marduk, and on the sixth day a mummers play dedicated to the goddess of fertility. Then a huge parade beginning at the temple and ending on the outskirts of Babylon in an appointed “New Year House”. Early European farmers beat drums and blew horns to drive away evil spirits. In China, on the New Year the forces of light beat back the forces…
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St. Stephen’s Day
The first feast day after Christmas is December 26, St. Stephen’s Day. This is usually a quiet day spent with family and friends, probably because everyone is so wiped out after all the Christmas feasting. In some countries, it is a day of parties and families go from house to house visiting friends. In Finland everyone rides down the street on horse drawn sleighs with festive bells for “the ride of St. Stephen”. In Catalonia, part of Spain, there is a large festive meal with canelons, which are stuffed with meat from the previous day’s Christmas feast. In Ireland, it is called “Day of the Wren”. In some parts of…
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Boxing Day
It falls on the day after Christmas, when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts, known as a “Christmas box”, from their bosses or employers. It seems to have started around the 1830s. In Britain, it was a custom for tradespeople to collect “Christmas boxes” of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for good service throughout the year. This custom is linked to an older English tradition: since they would have to wait on their masters on Christmas Day, the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day to visit their families. The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts,…
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The Twelve Days of Christmas
“On the First day of Christmas my true love sent to me a Partridge in a Pear Tree.” The earliest known version of the lyrics were published under the title “The Twelve Days of Christmas sung at King Pepin’s Ball”, as part of a 1780 children’s book, Mirth without Mischief. However, it is thought the song comes from an earlier tradition of rhyming memory-forfeit games. Children would sit in a circle and have to repeat the building rhyme. For any mistake made, the child would have to give up a treat. This technique was used in teaching to improve memory. A tradition also says this was a coded verse which…
