So as everyone in the States was waiting around to see if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, I was celebrating a different holiday.  Like Groundhog’s Day, La Chandeleur falls on February 2 each year–but that is about the only similarity in the two fêtes!

La Chandeleur is based in the Christian religion, as many holidays in France seem to be.  It a celebration of a day in Jesus’ early life. The French tradition practiced by adults and kids alike is to eat crêpes for dinner.  Specifically they must be eaten only after eight p.m. and if the cook can flip a crêpe while holding a coin in the other hand, the family is assured of prosperity throughout the coming year.

We didn’t get this into it chez Duband BUT we did chow down on lots of crêpes for dinner!  Cheese, ham, cream, sunny-side up eggs….these were the toppings for the dinner crêpes.  And for dessert we had an assortment of chocolate, sugar and lemon, and whipped cream.  With two crêpe machines going at once (one for large crêpes and one for smaller ones), we ate fast and ate a lot (easy to do with thin, delicious crêpes).

From now on my February 2nd will consist of crêpes AND crossing my fingers that little Phil doesn’t see his shadow so that the gloom of winter will soon be over!