Groundhog Day, La Chandeleur, Greek Food and more

When I first met my husband, he told me his birthday was February 2nd and he added "Groundhog Day."  I have never heard of Groundhog Day in France.  I found out that it is an old American tradition which dates back to the 1800s and is supposed to have originated from an ancient European belief that hibernating creatures could predict the arrival of springtime.  The tradition was brought over to the United States by German immigrants known as Pennsylvania Dutch.  Festivals are held on February 2nd and the largest one is in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, home of the most popular groundhog Punxsutawney Phil.  (Photo of statue below courtesy of Wiki-commons.)

On February 2nd if a groundhog sees his shadow when he comes out of his burrow, it is supposed to mean there will be six more weeks of winter.  If he doesn't see his shadow, it means we will get an early spring.  Phil has only a 39% rate of accuracy.  Here in Georgia we have our own celebrated groundhog named General Beauregard Lee.  The Yellow River Game Ranch, where he resides, claims that his rate of accuracy is 94%.  (Pictures of groundhogs below courtesy of Wiki-Commons.)

In my home in France, we did have a celebration on February 2nd - it is very popular in France still.  It is called "La Chandeleur" or "Crepe Day."  On this day large flat pancakes, known as crepes, are traditionally made and eaten.  At home in France, each of us, in turn, had to flip our crepe while holding a coin in the other hand.  If the crepe fell down flat back in the frying pan it meant that we would enjoy prosperity throughout the coming year.  If the crepe fell on the floor or somewhere else, we would giggle, and start over... it was a lot of fun, and tasty too.

Lately I found out that this holiday is also known within some Christian circles as "Candlemas."  I had not heard of this and researched it.  My research showed me that, just as the tradition of the "Galette des Rois"- see my post about it here - its origins date back to pre Roman times, to a pagan feast - the old pagan rite of Lupercalia, a rite of light.  The pagans used to celebrate the god Pan carrying torches or candles through the city.  "Chandeleur" comes from the word "chandelle" which means candle (latin "candelarum") as does the English word "candle."  In the year 472, Pope Saint Gelasius I (died 21 November 496) decided to "Christianize" this holiday to counteract paganism.  He usurped this pagan tradition and changed its name to Candlemas thus retaining the fire and candle symbols.  I read that chapels were decorated with burning candles which were blessed by clergy.  You can see the gentleman in the painting below as he is going to drop his crepe on the floor as everyone is laughing.

Making Crepes, painted by Eugene Pierre Francois Giraud, French 1806-1881

I knew of the old custom of La Chandeleur but had never heard of the religious tradition of Candlemas in France - it could be that it is observed in other countries.  If a writer usurps another author's story, he can be sued for plagiarism, the same applies to a composer if he copies another's piece of music. I wonder when the Church appropriated a holiday from pagan folklore if it could have been sued for "holiday plagiarism"? (lol.)  It certainly is a bizarre coincidence that so many pagan festivals became Christian holidays.

So last Saturday, February 2nd, we went for a late lunch at a local Greek restaurant - The Clay Oven Greek Mediterranean Restaurant, which we had not tried before.  We started with an appetizer, tiropita - a savory Phyllo dough feta cheese triangle.  We both chose the clay oven baked lamb and a Greek salad.  The lady owner came to our table to greet us and explained that this was a family owned restaurant where everything was made from scratch.  She offered the desert to my husband in honor of his birthday - a baklava cake.

There is a take-out bakery in the restaurant and an adjacent large room for Greek dancing on Thursday nights - if you don't know how to dance the Greek way, they teach you.  We may go and try one of these Thursdays...

Afterwards we drove up to the French bakery, Douceur de France, where my daughter had ordered a birthday cake for her father.  We opened the box outside the bakery to have a look - and you can see it on the picture at the top of this post.  Once back at home in the evening after a light dinner (we were still full from lunch) we had a piece of the cake...so yummy!

First, of course, my husband had to blow out the candles - just a dozen.

This was a "Black Forest" cake.  It is made of semi-sweet chocolate mousse, chocolate Genoise, whipped cream and Griotte cherries covered with a semi-sweet chocolate.  Griotte cherries are dark Morello type cherries that have usually been macerated in cherry brandy.  This cake was certainly delicious.  Here is another picture of it below taken with a different camera.

One of my bloggy friends, Patricia, asked in a comment "...Do you find you take different photos on a particular camera? ...Which do you prefer?" I like my Nikon D40 but I also like to use my other cameras because I am not very technical.  I keep the camera set on "automatic" and find that sometimes my other cameras will give me a better picture, or better lighting.  But sometimes it is quite hard to decide which photo to use in a post.  I went to our front yard with four of my cameras to take sample pictures.  We have a large Oregon Grape shrub in the front yard.  Actually we have numerous Oregon Grape shrubs because the birds have propagated it in various places in our woods.  Our two main bushes are quite large and one, near the house, reaches the window on the second story.  In Latin it is called a "Mahonia aquifolium" as aquifolium means "holly-leaved."  Right now it is covered with clusters of yellow blossoms.

 

With me I had my Nikon D40, Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS8, Cannon PowerShot SD980 IS and Olympus VG120.  I also have a Sony camera but I did not use it.  I took the photos at different times of the day, under a sunny and under a grey sky.  Here are the results.

As you can see above some are clearer, some have more color, and so forth.  I usually carry the Lumix in my purse because it is small and has a good long distance lens.  For example, last Friday, February 1st, we had an errand to do in a town north of us and we drove through Adairsville where a tornado had touched down two days before, on January 30th at 11:19 am.  I was able to take some pictures as I had my Lumix with me.  One photo I took through the windshield came our blurred.  The damage in Adairsville was considerable.  According to the National Weather Service, winds reached up to 160 miles per hour or 257.5 km.  The tornado was 22 miles long (35 km) and 900 yards wide (approx. 823 meters.)  Up to 442 structures have been damaged and many of them were totally destroyed.  So far the insured damages from this tornado and a second one which touched down in another area in Georgia is up to $75 million dollars and this figure will rise.  Our sirens blew and the sky turned black that morning - it is always a scary moment as it is hard to know where the tornado will strike.  (Click on collage twice to see better.)

One person in a trailer house was killed and many were injured, some severely.  Trailers do not withstand storms well.  I would think that old time log cabins were stronger.  When the pioneers came to America they had to clear the land and this gave them a ready supply of large logs.  Log cabins were easy to build as they could be built quickly and easily.  They were simply made with one room for the whole family.  Later on they could add more buildings or add to the existing cabin.  I read that the first log cabins in America were built by emigrants from Finland and Sweden.  The doors were usually built facing south to allow the sun to shine into the cabin.  I have seen and photographed several old ones in various US states.  Below is an old log cabin located in Chickamauga Battlefield National Park outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where we stopped last August.

Below are some vintage postcards showing various old log cabins. The top left is in Alaska.

This is the end of this eclectic post.  Next, I'll post on our second day in Callaway Gardens.  More to come...