You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

equineluvr ago

Mardi Gras is the N. American (French) Catholic equivalent of Carnival that is celebrated in Central and South America. As the name suggests, it is French ("Fat Tuesday"). The King Cake is a Mardi Gras tradition down there. (I should know, as I was born and raised in Louisiana.)


Wikipedia cites this history. It's from the website of a large bakery in the New Orleans area that ships king cakes all over the world.

"The Mardi Gras or Carnival season officially begins on January 6th or "King's Day" - also known to Christians as the Epiphany. Epiphany comes from a Greek word that means "to show." Bethlehem is where infant Jesus first showed himself to the world. As a symbol of this holy day, a tiny plastic baby is placed inside each King Cake."

Carnival historians say the something-in-the-cake tradition started here with a golden bean baked into a cake by the Twelfth Night Revelers on Jan. 6, 1870. The king cake was served to young women, and the one who got the bean was crowned queen. (They still do this, by the way.)

The whole tradition of king cakes came from France, and the king cake included a favor, or feve. Feve means "broad bean" or "charm." Early charms were a bean, painted or wrapped in foil, or a pecan. (Does a pecan represent the Baby Jesus?) Small bisque German-made dolls known as Frozen Charlottes were used as favors for a time and are highly collectible. The king cake doll pendant sold by jeweler Mignon Faget depicts one.

New Orleans and the South have other favor traditions that involve foreign objects in food and fortune-telling. Old-line jeweler Adler's sells sterling silver wedding cake favors or pulls to be attached to ribbons and put in or under the wedding cake. Before it's cut, the bride's girlfriends pull them out. The Adler's ones have, for example, a house on one side and "happy home" on the other. (One depicts a thimble and needle and says "old maid" on the reverse.)

http://www.mardigras.com/news/2015/01/what_does_the_king_cake_baby_r.html

neverobey ago

thanks for the info. I know everything about it. And the origin is much older than wikipedia claims. And is it even an official holiday?

duhiki ago

It's a cultural thing.

I used to work customer service for an online retailer with a warehouse in Louisiana and come January, we (office on west coast) would get daily shipments of King cake. I shit you not, the stack of bakery boxes was six-foot high. From my understanding it was a way to use up all the rich foods (eggs, butter) before Lent kicked in; the additions of figures isn't that unheard of. The Irish have a similar custom, with a sixpence and ring.

MyNameIsLuka ago

Just a note, you are confusing Fat Tuesday (also called Shrove or Pancake day,) with Epiphany (or King Cake day.)

Epiphany is observed on Jan 6, the day the Kings came to visit Jesus. It is celebrated with a cake with a baby in it that represents Jesus showing himself as King. It is also the beginning of the lenten season, but Lent doesn't begin until Ash Wednesday, the day before being Shrove. On Shrove (Fat) Tuesday, everyone eats pancakes to use up all the stuff like sugar and eggs for lent. It's a day of indulgences.

And that brings me back to my pancakes = pedo theory.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_Tuesday

neverobey ago

alright. I see. But I am one of those christians who is even sceptical about christmas. I feel like those pagan celebrations are a strange kind of symbol, how society never questions its origins and behaviour.

duhiki ago

Skepticism is good. And you're right, many festivals are pagan in origin. It's how the early church got the pagan masses to convert. Hey, you celebrate the 'sun' being born every year in mid-winter? So do we! But we spell it "Son." Same goes for Easter/Ostara; the renewal of spring and the promise of rebirth.

What gets me (I don't identify as Christian; more of an atheist with Jesuist leanings and a pagan background) is that the Bible specifically states "don't be like the heathens and bring greenery into your house" which is like the whole mainstream western symbol of Christmas; a marriage of pagan and Christian beliefs yielding a cultural norm.

neverobey ago

exactly what I think! There are plenty more quotes in the bible dealing with pagan rituals and that we should not celebrate them. However, this is the big influence of the church …