The festival ‘La Chandeleur’ (Candlemas or Crêpe Day) is celebrated in France on 2 February, 40 days after Christmas Day. It involves eating crêpes in the evening because the round shape and golden colour of crêpes represent the sun and the return to the light. The French Department thought it would be a great idea for pupils to make their own tasty crêpes:
- Toss the crêpe in the pan with your right hand while holding a piece of gold in your left – for good luck.
- Put the first crêpe in a drawer or on top of a wardrobe to attract prosperity for the coming year.
Superstitions
Here are some superstitions to go along with this tradition too…
If peasants didn’t make crêpes on this day, they believed that their crops would be bad the following year. To ensure that the harvest was good and that the year would be financially prosperous, they believed that they had to flip the first crêpe in the air with their right hand while holding a coin (Louis d’Or) in their left hand and also ensuring that the flipped crêpe landed perfectly back into the pan! The crêpe was then conserved on top of a wardrobe or cupboard and supposedly shouldn’t go moldy and should keep misery and deprivation far away.