To start the year 2025 off right, Epiphany, with its traditional tasting of the galette des rois, once again brings loved ones together around the table. But on what date exactly does this Christian holiday take place?
It all depends on your period! According to Christian tradition, Epiphany is held twelve days after the birth of Christ, i.e. Monday January 6, 2025. But a reform came to transfer the date to the first Sunday of the month of January, therefore this Sunday January 5, so that everyone can benefit from it. The king cake, which is shared to celebrate the arrival of the wise men in Bethlehem, guided by a star towards the crib where Mary gave birth to Jesus, can therefore be enjoyed this first Sunday of the year. Our taste buds are already delighted!
And the rule is not so strict: this king cake can also be enjoyed throughout the first half of January. And, looking at the bakers’ and pastry chefs’ stalls, we are already starting to eat it. For bakers and pastry makers, this is indeed a crucial moment for their turnover at the start of the year.
Epiphany is the result of a long tradition, dating back far before the birth of Jesus and resulting from a mixture of pagan and Christian traditions (as with Candlemas). Originally, in antiquity, it was to celebrate the god Dionysus. God of the vine, of wine, but also of celebration and excess in Greek mythology, Dionysus is intimately linked to the seasons and therefore to the cycles of vegetation. The feast given in his honor in the middle of thewinterand concomitant with the winter solstice, would symbolize its resurrection, the return of light and therefore the rebirth of this vegetation.
We also evoke the pagan festival known as “Saturnalia” to explain the origin of the Epiphany, just as it is invoked regarding the solstice. This time, it was the god Saturn who was celebrated by the Romans. Once associated with agriculture and seeds, notably thanks to a sickle that he carries in his right hand, this god remains relatively mysterious. “Sleeping” for a large part of the year, it was reborn among the Romans in the heart of winter, at the “twilight of the year”, a period which, this time, precedes the winter solstice. It would more generally symbolize the protection of the “bonds” of the family and the city.
In the first Christian communities of the East, in the 4th century, we began to associate this festival with the period following the birth of Jesus. Epiphany was born and corresponds to a “manifestation” in ancient Greek. In other words: after celebrating the birth of Jesus stricto-sensu during Christmas, Christians will begin to celebrate the “messiah”, that is to say the providential character that he represents. We must therefore look for signs of this messiahship, that is to say the first manifestations which authenticate Christ. There are three of them in the beginnings of Christianity: some evoke the first miracle performed by Jesus during the wedding at Cana, others speak of his baptism in the water of the Jordan, but closer to his birth, the first “manifestation” of his sacred character was quickly associated with the quest and adoration of the wise men who, themselves, recognized the Messiah shortly after his birth.
January 6, 12 days after Christmas, thus becomes the very first sacred feast of the liturgical calendar. In the West, Epiphany will gradually absorb ancient Roman and pagan traditions, and we will little by little gather around a cake to celebrate it. The acceptance of the galette des rois was not, however, easy : Lutherans, Calvinists and even some Catholics once rejected this pagan custom. In 1664, the Canon of Senlis notably confided in speeches that he was against the slightly too festive side of the cake.
In the Christian imagination, the galette des rois refers to the three three wise men who, guided by a star, went to Bethlehem to pray in front of the crib where Jesus was born, offering the child precious gifts. But we quickly learn, by looking into the question, that Epiphany (or its equivalent) was already celebrated well before the advent of the Christian religion.
We first speak of a golden cake with a round shape, a description which can recall the sun and therefore the cult of Saturnalia, also linked to the solsticewinter as well assummer. During these 7-day festivities, excesses were permitted and it was customary to offer cakes to those around you. A tradition which, in the Middle Ages, became that of the “kings’ cake”. For some, the name comes from the royalty that had to be paid to one’s lord at the same time. The fee is generally accompanied by a cake.
As for the bean, it would have preceded the pancake since it also dates from the Roman Empire. It was indeed customary in ancient Rome to draw lots for the king of a feast using a black or white token. It is also said that a king was designated in this way from among the soldiers of a garrison or in a family during the Saturnalia and that he could thus, for one day, realize all his desires and command everything he wanted. pleased. A legend also relates another origin of the bean: the legend of Donkey Skin, inspired by the tale of Charles Perrault. It was thus by forgetting his ring in a cake intended for the prince that Peau d’âne would have inspired this strange custom.
Finally, the tradition of sending the youngest guest under the table to determine who gets each piece of the cake would have arrived at the same time. Always during Saturnalia, the master of the house asked the youngest of the family, supposed to be the most innocent, to designate to which guest he should distribute the portion he held in his hand. The child is then generally nicknamed Phébé (for “Phoebus” or “Apollo”), in reference to an oracle of Apollo.
The recipe for the modern galette des rois, with frangipane, can frighten the least daring in the kitchen. However, it is very simple. It is aboutcombine puff pastry with frangipane, in other words a mixture of pastry cream, butter, sugar and almond powder. Up to you :
“As simple as a homemade king cake”
Nowadays, the pancake made of puff pastry and frangipane seems to have established itself in the collective imagination. But is the authentic galette des rois frangipane, brioche or candied fruit cake? Originally, galettes des rois were simple breads in which a bean was used instead of a bean. But gradually, several regions added their specificity to this flatbread.
Brioche, still in use in many regions, particularly in the south of France, would therefore be the most traditional form of the galette des rois, since it is closest to a ball of bread. In the North, but also in Provence and Languedoc, it has become the “cake of kings”, covered with sugar and candied fruit. The frangipane was born in the 17th century under the leadership of Anne of Austria and her son. Louis XIV. The puff pastry is said to have originated in Paris, so much so that it was once nicknamed “the Parisian”. Today, the galette des rois, consumed by 85% of French people, is mainly purchased with frangipane (80%). But several king cake recipes therefore compete with each other although the frangipane one is the favorite of the king cakes.
When is Epiphany in 2025?
Epiphany, also called Three Kings Day, will take place on Monday January 6, 2025 in the Christian calendar. If you decide to respect the original date, you will have to wait until this date to taste the famous galette des rois, traditional with frangipane or chocolate. January 6 regularly falling in the middle of the week (a Monday this year 2025) after the wishes of Have a good yeara reform however transferred the date to the second Sunday following Christmas, or almost systematically to the first Sunday from January 1. The galette des rois can therefore be cut on Sunday January 5, at least in countries which do not have public holiday dedicated to Epiphany. But rest assured, bakeries and pastries are not going to stop anytime soon, and you can enjoy the galette des rois at least until mid-January !