King For a Day
6 January is when the French traditionally share a dessert, la galette des rois, with friends and neighbours. It’s usually filled with frangipani, said to be named after after Frangipani, Marshal of France under Louis XIII, although the facts do not bear this out. The legend is Frangipani didn’t like the smell of his leather gloves so invented a paste from ground almonds to clean them.
One slice of la galette contains a surprise, une fève (originally a bean), so inspect yours first to avoid breaking a tooth. You do wonder if French dentists do a roaring trade from 7 January. The one served that particular slice is king for the day. If children are present, adults cheat so that the youngest gets to wear the paper crown.
Until the 1960s, 6 January, Epiphany, was a public holiday. Although the Vatican decided it would be celebrated instead on the first Sunday after 1 January, many still share the cake on the 6th.
The tradition started with the Romans when offerings were given to Saturn, the god of agriculture, to give thanks for the longer days which follow the winter solstice. A huge round yellow cake representing the sun was divided into equal portions between masters and their slaves. Inside one slice was a broad bean. Whoever had it was king for a day.
With the rise of Christianity, the pagan cake transmuted into the feast day of Epiphany to commemorate the arrival of the Three Kings in Bethlehem. Why let a popular tradition go to waste?
Question: What has François I got to do with the cake? Answer: The story goes that a bone of contention between les boulangers et les pâtissiers in Paris was over the profitable monopoly of selling the King’s Cake. When François gave it to the pastry chefs, bakers retaliated by selling pancakes, les galettes, on 6 January to celebrate Epiphany when the Magi visited Jesus. As a clever marketing ploy, they baked a porcelain baby Jesus inside one slice.
It may surprise some French to know parts of America keep up the tradition. Many French soldiers who fought for America during its Revolution settled there. France, America’s closest ally, provided gunpowder and cannons crucial to its victory. In 1778 Louis XVI officially recognized its independence from England.
Louisiana and Louisville were named after Louis XVI. Much good it did him. He hated the English so much he bankrupted France to help America and lost his head as a result. In 1967, Montpellier gave a statue of Louis XVI to Louisville. For obvious reasons it could not be erected there. It still stands in front of Louisville Metro Hall.
Although Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803, every 6 January, a statue of Joan of Arc is paraded through the streets of the old French Quarter. The evening ends with locals sharing the King’s Cake.
Although the Colas Pottery in the Nièvre, France, one of the last pottery works that still makes les fèves by hand, export to the United States, the cake will not have one inside. America is a litigious country, bakers are nervous of reprisals. Colas says “A king cake without a figurine is not a king cake, it’s a frangipane pie called a pithiviers!”
In France, revolutionaries dispensed with royalty and religion, kings and Epiphanies, but kept the popular tradition and renamed the pancake la Galette de la Liberté. The infant Jesus was replaced by the cap of liberty.
Ever since Giscard d'Estaing started the tradition in 1975, a giant pancake is delivered every January to the President at the Élysée Palace. He is the only person in France who cannot be declared King for the day. La galette des rois does not contain une fève because the palace cannot house a king.
Post by Pamela
