Having only ever spent the festive season in the UK up until now, I egocentrically thought that Christmas celebrations were fairly similar the world over; that Christmas is a time for family, turkey, crackers, presents and Santa. Being in France has made me realise this isn't quite the case...
Yesterday it was my school's Christmas meal. This meant 70 hungry kids and 50 hungry adults. In my experience, us Brits whip out some turkeys, a few pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, buckets of gravy, the generally loathed-but-necessary brussel sprouts, and wash it all down with flaming Christmas pudding. The French, well known for their culinary abilities, take a slightly more demure approach, even on a large 'school-meal' scale. The meal opened with fois gras on toasted brioche, casual, and was soon followed by what looked and tasted like boeuf bourginon. I was just finishing my last mouthful, thinking 'this is very chewy for French beef', when my neighbour leaned over and said 'tu as aimé l'otrouche?', pointing at the meat, to which I replyed with my automatic 'oui' and a smile; oblivious to the fact that she had just asked me if had enjoyed the ostrich..... :|
I think my favourite tradition that I found was the 'Cago Tio' from Catelonia. Translated literally as 'shitting log', the Cago Tio is hollowed log, propped up on two sticks, which is given a face and 'fed' with festive foods. On Christmas day, Cago Tio is put partially into the fire and ordered to 'poo' while being beaten by sticks. The contents then fall out and are to be enjoyed by the family. Yummy.
Finally, I heard this Christmas song from Haiti being played in school today,
its so different from the overplayed songs (Slade, f***ing Slade) that
we hear every December. Give it a listen, it gets going at 0:22:
~~~JWAYE NWEL~~~
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