Bring in the sunshine with some crêpes

If you are tired of the rain, cold, and for those of you who live in the snow, the snow, join the French in celebrating the Fête de la Lumière or la Chandeleur or better yet Jour des Crêpes, the day of crêpes. As many holidays in France, they have turned the Catholic holidays into ones of joy and celebration – with food.

Not being Catholic, I just learned it is from a longer tradition to move out the winter and bring in the spring (or at least hope it is coming soon. The fête is celebrated with the making and eating of crêpes and engaging in a bit of fortune telling, similar to our Groundhog Day. The tradition as told to me is to hold a coin in your writing hand and a crêpe pan in the opposite hand, and flip the crêpe into the air. If you manage to catch the crêpe in the pan, your family will be prosperous for the rest of the year. When you catch the crêpe you can yell,: À la Chandeleur, l'hiver cesse ou reprend vigueur or just Hip Hip hooray!

Similar to Groundhog day, the catching of the crêpe tells you the days will grow longer quickly or will be covered in snow and cold for another forty days.

Ultimately, it signals the beginning of the end of winter..., time for fun, eating of crêpes, and the springtime is around the corner, let's celebrate!

So, tomorrow, February 2, get out your crêpe pan, sugar, jam, and nutella and celebrate the day and help bring in the sunshine.