Today is the "Three Kings Day" or Epiphany which is very much celebrated in certain European countries. In Italy and Spain it is even more celebrated than Christmas.
In Belgium on Epiphany people eat the ""galette des Rois" (sometimes also called "gateau des Rois). This is a kind of king cake, with a trinket or a bean hidden inside. The person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket becomes king for a year and puts a crown on. This is usually a day where families or friends are getting together and share the "galette" it's usually very funny because everybody wants to find the trinket in his part of cake and become a king !
Yesterday I saw these "galettes" everywhere in Bakeries or Supermarkets. In the News they said that 5.200 bakeries have baked between 200 and 250 galettes each !
Every year other trinkets are invented and in fashion. They are in plastic, ceramic or porcelain. This year I found out that Harry Potter trinkets were on the top list. More traditional families put a little Jesus or a bean as trinket or sometimes also coin. This use exists since 1801.
Trinket samples :
Harry Potter
Star Wars
Happy Three Kings Day! We also celebrate this in the Philippines. As kids, we used to stuff our shoes with grass and leave them out for the 3 kings' camels, and in the morning the grass would be "eaten" and the 3 kings would leave all sorts of candy and toys, usually much better than what Santa Clause would give.
ReplyDeleteThey are wonderful those Galettes.
ReplyDeleteFor me it's a curiousity that this event is celebrated in Belgium: 3 Kings. When you dispute the one you have. Well - well I know how that happened. Even know why Belgium is a country (Royal heritage bla bla bla).
By the way - did I tell you we many years ago had several friends in Nivelle? And I did attend courses in La Hulpe...
Small world.
btw. I felt asleep yesterday, when uploading pictures to Lifecruisers Party. When I woke up, I could not understand a #¤". But now I think: What a wonderful way to pass away..
Don't worry. I was very tired. Went early to the Airport to bring my daughter to Town (snowing all the way). She told me about when she was robbed etc and that she is, most probably, moving to Hong Kong very soon. I have my thoughts...
Have a great Sunday. I think I'll watch TV - final stage of Tour de Ski. Then go to bed and sleep like a Cat or Bear.
I must add: On this Day, tradition says the Christmas tree must be out of the house. "Trettende" (13nd) day Christmas. Lucky us, we just drop it from our Balcony and then push it 20 meters down the hill to the pick up point.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting post! I have heard of this day, but kind of like "Boxing Day," in Brittain, I never really knew what it consisted of. Thanks for the enlightenment! Hope you had fun...
ReplyDeleteThose are awfully cute! That woul be fun to find one of these dear little trinkets in your cake!
ReplyDeleteHappy 3 Kings Day to you!!! those trinkets are beautiful, what a great tradition. Spaniards do something similar with a "roscon de reyes", I avoided the stores (all of them) the past two days as they are the busiest ones of the whole year! everybody goes wild shopping and grocery shopping, they can't plan ahead although they know the date already but it adds some adrenaline to go buy presents at the very last minute!
ReplyDeleteForgot to tell you hundreds of people got stuck for 3 hours! in a Madrid mall on Friday as they all wanted to leave the shopping center at once...
ReplyDeleteoh, they were all trying to leave the parking lot...
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely tradition!
ReplyDeleteMissed you at the party last night!
Well Happy Diekonigendag to you too. Little Christmas/Epiphany is not celebrated here in North America. It sounds like a lot of fun. I found out about it at this website written by a cat????
ReplyDeletehttp://kats-in-klompen.blogspot.com/2007/01/three-kings-driekoningen.html
Happy Kings Day..
ReplyDeletejust read about this tradition in wikipedia. Quite interesting.. The Galette looks delicious and it is made with puff pastry? I bake an Apple Galette quite often.
In the meantime Gattina, the arctic airmass reaching down to Florida has moved east and we can enjoy warmer temperatures. I always say it is cold but we got clean air from the north:-))
As you can see I love books for the garden and others as well. Here in Toronto we have a wonderful library system. I can order my books online. A few days later an automated voice call lets me know if my books are ready for pickup in our local library.
Love the service.
Have a wonderful Sunday
cheers Gisela
Hi Gattina ~~ That was interesting. We do not celebrate Three Kings Day
ReplyDeletehere in Australia. A nice tradition and the galette sounds lovely too.
Thank you for your comments on my blog. We haven't had any serious fires yet and believe it or not, there are floods in Northern New South Wales. (Well away from me)
Take care, Love, Merle.
This is an interesting tradition - sounds good to me! (any excuse for cake)
ReplyDeleteOhhhhhhh I just LOVE this tradition!!! WHY wasn't THIS one brought into our big American MELTING POT? And I bet those treasures are QUITE the collector's items! Especially I would think the ceramic ones.
ReplyDeleteSo Mr. Gattino has moved the kings alllllllll the way to the crip... how exciting! And now the baby Jesus has all his nice gifts! Gattina - I think if you never put out another Christmas decoration again, you should ALWAYS put out Mr. Gattino's nativity!!! :)
Wonderful! I love these traditions. I wish we had them here.
ReplyDeleteI did, however, take down my Christmas tree!!!
Happy Epiphany! I remember this custom from when I lived in France. "Tirer les rois" they called it I think.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get the "feve" so that you can be king (or rather queen) for a year! I think in France the family I lived with only made you king for a day though. Now that I have kids I understand why they wouldn't want to make one king for a whole year!
Thanks for your comment. By the way, this loaded quite quickly for me (I use Firefox - can't stand IE either).
Enjoy your day!
What a fun tradition and celebration! Have fun and I hope you get the trinket in your piece of cake!!!
ReplyDelete:0) Sharon
Happy Epiphany!
ReplyDeleteGattina,
ReplyDelete5 Katzen und dennoch fehlt der Fun Monday Eintrag??
Zu einfach, was???
:-)
Hi Gattina. I was at another blog earlier and read about this fun tradition. Glad to come here and read more interesting things about it. I'd love to be the one to find the trinket inside. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child, we would put our shoes under the tree and find money inside upon waking up the following day.
Happy Three Kings!
I have never come across a galette! We don't have such a festival here. It seems fun. The galette looks yummy .
ReplyDeleteI would worry about biting down on one of those and breaking my tooth!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information though, that is maybe a holiday I would celebrate, except maybe putting hay in my shoes for the camels because the cats would use the hay for a catbox!
I love the idea of the trinkets in cakes! My mom used to put coins in our birthday cakes!
ReplyDeleteNeat tradition.
A Happy Three Kings Day to you!(belated)
ReplyDeleteLove this post, very interesting!