Category Archives: Christmas

Jan 04 2015
Christmas, Epiphany, La Befana, The Gift Bearers, Twelfth Night

Following that Star

Cappella_dei_magi_paesaggio

TENTH DAY of CHRISTMAS:
St. Titus’s and St. Gregory’s Day

Again today, like yesterday, there are no particular customs associated with this, the Tenth Day of Christmas. It is the Feast Day of St. Titus and St. Gregory. Titus was a disciple of St. Paul in the first century, and St. Gregory was a bishop in the sixth century. It’s also St. Rigobert’s Day and St. Ramon’s Day. But not much is done to celebrate these good guys, and in this house, the Tenth Day of Christmas is typically a day of preparation for the bigger festivities that come next over the two days that follow: Twelfth Night and Epiphany, the celebrations that close the Christmas season.

The celebration of Epiphany on January 6 rivals that of Christmas Day in some countries. It’s the big day for gift giving, and we see the last of the wintertime gift bearers in Italy with la befana and throughout Spain and Latin America, the three kings themselves bringing presents. As for Twelfth Night, well, this is a celebration that has fallen a bit out of favor here in the States, and this is too bad. We think of Twelfth Night and Epiphany as a proper close to the Christmas season. For those of you who feel a bit let down after Christmas, these are especially important celebrations, for they help give Christmas its full life and scope.

Last year I shared with you a recipe for one of the Epiphany traditions in our house: Three Kings Cakes. I’ll share it with you again today, for if you bake them today or tomorrow morning, they’ll be ready in plenty of time for Twelfth Night or for Epiphany. You will need three loaf pans because the recipe yields three cakes, one for each of the Magi: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. The Magi will arrive on the Sixth of January, just in time for these delightful cakes that are flavored with honey and rose water, flavors of the ancient Mediterranean world, flavors they certainly knew well in their day.

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THREE KINGS CAKES
makes three cakes

For the Batter
1 cup butter
generous 3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups currants
3 cups applesauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream together the butter and the sugar, then add the eggs and vanilla. Beat smooth before adding the remaining ingredients. Grease 3 loaf pans (about 8″ x 4″ x 3″ or so) and divide the batter amongst the pans. Bake for one hour, or until a toothpick poked into the center of each cake comes out dry. Let the cakes cool in their pans on a rack.

For the Syrup
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
2 tablespoons rose water

Once the cakes are baked, combine the syrup ingredients, except for the rose water, in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the sugar dissolves, add the rose water. Remove the cinnamon stick and the cloves and then pour the hot syrup over the cakes in their pans, divided equally amongst the three cakes. The syrup will soak into the cakes. Allow to cool completely before unmolding from the pans. Serving the three cakes on three platters makes for a nice presentation on Epiphany Day or on Twelfth Night.

If you have trouble finding good rose water, we happen to sell an excellent one at our website, in the Inspired Living for Everyday pages of our online catalog. Our rose water is made by the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community in Maine, from their line of culinary herbs and herbal teas that we’ve been selling at conviviobookworks.com for years now. It’s one of the most delightful flavorings you’ll bake with, adding a mysterious and delicate flavor not just to these cakes, but also to apple pie, cookies, and even French toast. It’s pretty wonderful stuff.

Christmas, meanwhile, is soon coming to a close. Somewhere on the horizon there are three old men following that star, nearing their destination, and in Italy, la befana is at her cleaning; she has her broom in hand, and she’s preparing to sweep away the festivities.

 

Image: Detail from a fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli in the Cappella dei Magi (Chapel of the Magi) at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, Italy, 15th century. [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

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Jan 03 2015
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Christmas, Solstice

There is a Light and It Never Goes Out

St Genevieve

NINTH DAY of CHRISTMAS:
St. Genevieve’s Day

We are in the midst now of a more contemplative period within the Twelve Days of Christmas. Yesterday we remembered St. Macarius, or St. Macaroon the Confectioner, and tomorrow we remember a few other saints (four of them, to be exact). Today, though, this Ninth Day of Christmas is given to the Feast of St. Genevieve, who is sacred to Paris, where she lived in the fifth century as a nun. She saved the city from an attack by Attila and his Huns in 451. This she did through fasting and prayer, encouraging the residents of the city to join her. And around 475, she founded Saint-Denys de la Chapelle in Paris, which stands today as part of the Basilica of St. Denis.

There are no particular customs associated with the Feast Day of St. Genevieve, nor this Ninth Day of Christmas (as well as the day that follows) and my theory is that this more contemplative time within the Christmas revels is here by design. We need some time for quiet and for reflection, and the most proper way to celebrate this Ninth Day of Christmas, I think, is with stillness and candlelight. St. Genevieve is another of the midwinter saints typically associated with light: she is often seen holding a candle, and the story goes that the devil time and again would blow out her candle as she went to pray at night, so as to thwart her. Genevieve, however, was able to relight her candle without need of flint or fire. And so she is another of the light bearers in midwinter’s darkness. Thirteen days on the other side of the solstice, already light is increasing as we begin the journey toward summer’s warmth once more in the Northern Hemisphere. The light of St. Genevieve promises to never be snuffed by the darkness.

 

Image: St. Genevieve by an unknown artist, 17th century. [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

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Jan 02 2015
2 Comments
Christmas

St. Macaroon

St_Macarius_of_Egypt

EIGHTH DAY of CHRISTMAS:
St. Macarius’s Day

This Eighth Day of Christmas is given to the Feast of St. Macarius of Egypt, who was no fun at all. He is a fourth century saint from Alexandria who lived the latter part of his life as a hermit in the desert, eating only raw vegetables on most days. On special days, he ate a bit of bread dipped in oil.

Prior to his ascetic ways, though, Macarius was a confectioner, and so he is known as a patron saint of cooks, confectioners, and pastry chefs. His day could have gone either way, and the tradition for the Eighth Day of Christmas may very well have been to eat raw vegetables and talk to no one, but this is Christmastime, and folks are in a festive mood. Luckily, it is Macarius the Confectioner who gets our attention on his feast day, and tradition would have us enjoying something sweet for his day. Macarius the Confectioner certainly brought a bit of happiness to the people of Alexandria who ate his candies and confections, and today we ask him for a bit of that happiness once more.

Over the years, St. Macarius has developed a nickname, which comes from a combination of his former profession and the fact that his real name is not an easy one to pronounce for some folks. And so he has become known also as St. Macaroon. . .  which makes him a lot less ascetic and a lot more grandfatherly, perhaps. On this Eighth Day of Christmas, St. Macaroon and I encourage you to find happiness and sweetness in life.

 

Image: St. Macarius of Egypt, from an old Ukranian codex. [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

 

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