Twelfth Night is a bit of a grumpy day for me. Nothing festive happens. It’s just the day for dismantling the Christmas tree, packing baubles and Christmas wreaths away for another year, and reading through Christmas cards from old friends for the last time before they’re taken off to some recycling point. The house looks sparse and bare, and maybe in need of a spring-clean.
I think of Emily over in Barcelona. She’s not at work today because Twelfth Night is Epiphany. It’s the day on which Spanish children at last get their Christmas gifts, because the Day of the Three Kings is when legend has it that the Magi presented their gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus. As Emily points out, the main downside to this late arrival of gifts is that this is the very last day of the holidays: school tomorrow, and no time to get to play with those new toys. Still, today is another chance to party and enjoy a family feast.
It was Emily who may have been responsible for our finding ‘el caganer’ in our Christmas stocking this year. If your Catalan isn’t up to translating this, let me explain. It means, um, ‘the crapper’. El caganer is a little fellow in Catalan costume, squatting with his trousers down, and defecating. Why? Well, he’s a traditional part of Catalan nativity scenes. Maybe he’s a fertility symbol. Most people these days prefer the idea that it shows that great or small, we all have the same very basic needs.
So these days at any street market, you can buy caganer figures who represent the Pope, the Queen, Barack Obama, a whole range of footballers – any personality you can think of. And they’re just the same as us. Even if it’s Twelfth Night, I don’t think I’ll pack away our little ‘el caganer’ just yet.
And when we lived in France, Epiphany was the start of the Galette des Rois season. As guests anywhere, you’ll be sure to be offered a slice of this almondy pastry confection. Part of you wants the good luck of being the person to find the ‘fève’ within your slice. This used to be a lucky bean, making you king for the day. Nowadays it’s a small china figurine, and maybe quite collectable. I’ve just been looking unsuccessfully for our little fireman ‘fève’: goodness knows where I’ve hidden him . The downside of finding the lucky bean though, is that it’s your turn to make the galette next time round.
Parts of Europe seem to be having fun. Ho hum. Here, it’s all too easy to be aware that there’s January to get through before we can think of the days lengthening and the arrival of Spring.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
Epiphany is strange in the UK, usually everyone is back at work and it’s just another day. I confess that my decorations (bar the cards) came down on Sunday but I will have to be very careful and make sure everything is away. Apparently if not any remaining decorations have to stay up for a twelvemonth or you will be inviting the devil in. Who knew?
And I love galette de rois!
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Oh, I think the devil spends quite a lot of time here already actually. Which galette des rois do you prefer? The brioche style? Or the flaky pastry one? It’s the latter for me every time, though the brioche one is prettier. I’ve just found this while trying unsuccessfully to remember which type came from which part of France: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/jan/30/french-epiphany-king-sociable-cakes
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Flaky pastry every time! although the last thing my waistline needs at the moment is more food…
Thanks for the link as well. 🙂
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The ‘figure in a cake’ thing is the same here, except they eat Roscon (or Tortell in Catalan) de Reyes, which…isn’t that nice. Everybody only eats it to get the figurine, and in some families everybody puts in 5 euros, meaning the one who finds the figurine is in the money.
The children were horrible yesterday as they hadn’t slept much, so good luck to teachers today.
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At least you teach adults, who will either sleep quietly in a corner, or cooperate, presumably.
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Some people’s ” sparse and bare” is other people’s uncluttered and pristine. I love it!!!
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I’m not very good at ‘uncluttered and pristine’. I’m a slob at heart, I think.
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I learned a lot from this post! I’d never heard of el caganer–and I love the idea that you can buy him in so many incarnations! And, since Epiphany is not celebrated here, I didn’t know abut the galette either, although during Mardi Gras in New Orleans they serve a King Cake, which has a figurine of the baby Jesus baked in. I guess that the galette must be the inspiration for that.
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It does sound much the same, though waiting till the day before Lent kicks in sounds a bit odd as far as the baby Jesus is concerned.
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The celebrations we don’t even know that go on…Really interesting post, although I do find the caganer tradition a ‘different’ but then so is the Mexican Day of the Dead. Bet the bad bout you had with your health didn’t help with your grumpiness.
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Oh, I’m still grumpy! This ‘flu doesn’t want to let go, quite……. Just been reading about the Day of the Dead: thanks for introducing me.
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I’m a big fan of el caganer, I’ve even seen him in the grand surroundings of Girona Cathedral. Savagearts will hopefully correct me if I’m wrong but when I was in Barcelona I seem to remember there being several items in the Tortell de Reyes – one a crown, which made you king or queen for the day and something else (a bean?) which meant the recipient had to pay for next year’s cake. Guess who got the bean?
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Ah, but since you weren’t in Barcelona, I guess, for very long, DID you have to pay?
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