Our Galette des Rois, and more...

My mother, at home in Paris, would always buy a "Galette des Rois" in early January at the local bakery.  It was a traditional event.  I was not sure why we had it then, but I liked eating the galette. A similar confection here is called "King's cake" but it is not the same.  Luckily we have a French bakery in our area called "Douceur de France" and when we visited them last Monday we purchased one of their galettes. (Click on collage twice to enlarge and see better.)

It is usually said that the galette was baked in honor of the 3 Kings and started in France in 1311.  But that is not exactly true - the tradition for this cake is much older - it goes back to Pagan times.  During the Winter Solstice feasts in ancient Rome a mock king was elected and roles were reversed - the slaves or servants gave directions and were served by their masters.  The election of this king was done via a bean, or a feve (French for bean) inside a cake.  Whoever obtained the bean in his part of the cake became the king.  In 46 BC when the Romans adopted the "Julian Calendar" December 24th was the shortest day of the year, so December 25th was when daylight began to increase signaling the start of the Winter Solstice merriment.  However, in 274 AD, Roman emperor Aurelian, who was a follower of the cult of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun) decided that Sol Invictus' birthday should be celebrated on December 25 to upstage the Winter Solstice. 

 Sol Invictus, 3rd Century AD (Courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

The popular Roman festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of Sol Invictus) starting on December 25th lasted for many years.  The people would wear masks, there were even parades with floats, called "carrus navalis" - which could be the origins of our current carnivals now.  In the cult of Sol Invictus it was believed that this savior had been born from a virgin, the birth had been attended by Persian priests (Magi,) had been crucified, buried in a cave and resurrected three days later.  He was called the Lord of the Light, the Sun or Son, etc.  By the 4th Century the new Christian religion, which did not like all these pagan festivals and felt threatened, held the first Feast of the Nativity in Rome on December 25th, AD 336.  It seems that, eventually, the Christian Messiah was merged with Sol Invictus resulting in the official church of Rome.  Scholars are still arguing about this, and since I am not a scholar, I just read about it.  Around the 14th century the Catholic Church in France changed the pagan galette into the "Galette des Rois" but kept its shape and color, round and gold like a sun, and the bean inside, still called a "feve" after all these centuries.  The galette has been popular ever since as you can see by the vintage postcards and plate below.

To get back to my galette I was the lucky one and found the feve in my piece.  We celebrated with a fine sparkling wine.

At first the tradition, in France, was that the bean or feve in the galette was a porcelain fish to symbolize Christianity or a baby for the Baby Jesus.  But this has evolved into a feve that can be anything - fruit, animal, etc.  People collect these feves and there is even a name for it, it is called "Favophilie" or "Fabophilie" and collectors try to obtain all the feves of a series or rare specimen.  Below are some examples.

My bean, or feve, was a little "lutin" or gnome- real cute.

The Galette des Rois is traditionally made with flaky puff pastry and "frangipane" an almond vanilla cream.  A touch of rum can be added to the cream and I distinctly tasted rum in my piece of cake.  When we went back to Douceur de France bakery yesterday I asked if there had been rum in the cake.  The salesperson assured me "no" so I asked her to go and ask the cook.  She came back, very surprised, and said "you are right - there is rum in it."  So this time we bought some Rum Balls.

In France you can find these tasty galettes in January in most bakeries and pastry shops.  The connection with any religious holiday has become faint, it has become more of a "traditional" French holiday and everybody buys one.  I was reading in a French forum about it.  A Tunisian lady (Muslim) was asking whether she could buy a galette.  Here was the answer: "vous vous trompez, chaque famille fait une galette à sa façon , nous dansons entre parents et élèves et nous partagons nos galettes. Les parents musulmans nous redemandent cette fête chaque année, même si nous n'avons pas prévu de la faire!" Translation: "you are wrong, each family makes a galette the way they wish, we dance between parents and students and we share our galettes.  The Muslim parents ask for this holiday each year, even when we have not decided to celebrate it."  I think this person is a kindergarten teacher.  She added that many people eat "croissants" the French pastry and don't realize that it started as a way to celebrate Islam.  So that peaked my interest and I researched the origins of the croissant which we just happened to buy at the bakery, too.

On the English Web I found out that the earliest history for the croissant goes back to 1683 in Vienna, Austria, during the Ottoman Turks siege of the city.  But going to the French Web I found out that, once again, this is not so, that it is older than that. It seems that French King Francis the 1st (1494-1547) invited Ottoman Suleiman the Magnificent  (1494-1566) to a banquet to solidify the alliance between the two.  The French pastry chefs would have invented a pastry in the shape of a crescent to honor the Sultan.  At the time the French people were upset to have a crescent or "croissant" in French, instead of a "lily" which was the emblem of the king.

  Even Queen Consort Catherine de Medici had "40 cakes in the shape of crescent" served in a banquet in Paris in 1549 (way before they were introduced in Vienna in 1683.)  In any case, I like croissants with my coffee for breakfast.

This past week was not spent only eating pastries.  I finished one of the books given to me as a present called "The World of Downton Abbey" by Jessica Fellowes.

  It gives lavish illustrations about the television series and good background information about the Edwardian era.  

 

Last Sunday I also watched the first episode of the third season of Downton Abbey on television.  I had not seen the first season but enjoyed the second year very much.  Actually I had not watched any other television series since then.  I was surprised by Shirley MacLaine's look.  I felt that the camera lightning and her makeup did not suit her well.  I also felt that her character was the stereotype of what an Edwardian British aristocrat would have thought of a rich American.  Shirley reminded me of someone and after looking in my art folder I realized that she did look a bit like the sculpture made of a lady reading by French artist Veronique LaurentDidier, who has a workshop in Pertuis in South Luberon, France.

Now I have to wait for the second episode.  Where will the money come from to save Downton Abbey?  I don't know but I would be afraid that one of the ways would be for Lady Mary to inherit the money her new husband is refusing to accept - that would mean that his character would disappear - maybe he might fall off his horse, or get a virulent virus, or whatever ....  Below is a vintage postcard of the real Downton Abbey, which is Highclere Castle.