La Fête des Rois Mages

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BULGARI, Christmas, cookies, Epiphany, gifts, sunshine, the 3 kings

Well today is the 6 January, the last day of the Christmas festivities. Again at dinner time we were listening to Radio Canada from Montreal and Monique Giroux the host of the music show had a special 1969 French Song of that year. It was a great year for French songs in Canada and in France, many hits for sure and some duds. I was 12 years old in 1969 and the Host Monique Giroux was 6 years old. It was so strange to hear all these old songs, many made me smile remembering Montreal then, we lived in Snowdon and the big street was Queen Mary Road name after the wife of King George V.

My father was the manager of the Bonaventure Hotel which was operated then be Western International, the hotel part of United Airlines, my Mom was in real estate in Westmount, then a really expensive stone mansion was $50,000. For some unexplained reason this Holiday Season I have been thinking a lot about my parents and my childhood years in Montreal. Our Prime Minister then was Pierre E. Trudeau, the father of our current PM Justin, who was not even born. It was also the year before the October Crisis which would see Martial Law impose for 6 months with the army occupying the streets. Being in Quebec, despite our young age I remember how aware we were of the political events.

This beautiful mosaic in the cathedral of San Vitale in Ravenna of the 3 kings dressed in the Gaul style with pants and the red phrygian caps bearing gifts to Jesus. 

This being the Feast of Epiphany, La Befana brought me a gift. In Italy she is the old lady who gives gifts to children on this day, there is NO Santa in the Italian tradition. BULGARI  is my favourite.

 

Will also made Peanut Butter cookies, they are very good but not the 22 dozens the recipe called for.

Home at 04:10 pm with the sun setting in the West.

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Epiphany 6 January

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Epiphany, gifts, Italy, La Befana, women

6th January 2017,

Throughout Italy the 6th of January is traditionally a gift giving holiday though in the rest of the world it is a bit of a quiet day. Decorations come down (or bad luck will fall), leaving rooms looking a bit sparse and bare. It’s back to work and for kids, it’s countless weeks of school until Easter. But in Italy, Epiphany is a cause for celebration and is celebrated all over the country. It’s a day that marks the 12th day of Christmas when Jesus received his gifts from the Three Wise Men. One of the most commonly known aspects of Epiphany is the old woman, La Befana, who comes bearing gifts of good for the well behaved kids and lumps of coal for the not so well behaved youngsters (although, to sweeten the mood, the coal tends to be a lump of coal-shaped candy), there is no Santa Claus in Italian tradition. Many areas put on special celebrations for the legend of the old woman who encountered the Wise Men on their route to the manger. She too wanted to offer a gift for the Christ Child and this is how she became in folkloric legend the one who bears gifts to children on Epiphany. Christmas Day remains a religious holiday, though a minor one in Roman Catholic tradition compared to Easter which is the most important religious holiday on the calendar.

A conventional take on the La Befana celebration is in Urbania, which really goes to town with a four-day spectacular during which kids can meet the lady herself in La Casa della Befana. Another familiar element of Epiphany is the Nativity, and a good number of regions act out the scene, following the living nativities of the Christmas period. One of the best known of the nativities is the one in Rivisondoli, which relives the moment in which the Wise Men arrived – and it does so on a large scale with lots of extras in costume and a genuine atmosphere.