On Jan. 19, the French Club held their New Years and l’Epiphanie themed meeting.
New Year’s Eve, or la Saint-Sylvestre is celebrated by the French with a feast called le Réveillon. Epiphany — “l’Epiphanie” in French is a European holiday held either on the first Sunday of January or on Jan 6. The holiday is for celebrating the day the three wise men were purported to have visited the baby Jesus.
“The most traditional symbol of “l’Epiphanie” is “la galette de rois”, or the King’s cake, a puff-pastry cake with almond paste in the inside. The type of cake varies from region to region with the North having a simpler cake and the South having a more extravagantly decorated cake,” Student Council Representative Kathleen Zhang ‘18 said.
Since one of the goals of French Club is to explore French culture, they prepared a King’s cake. Treasurer Kathryn Hall ‘17 baked it herself.
“The hardest part was baking it for the correct amount of time. The recipe called for 15 minutes with a break and then 12 more minutes, but when I put the first cake back in the oven, it wasn’t 3 minutes before the edges started to get dark,” Hall said. “For the second cake, I only baked it for the first 15 minutes and it looked much better.”
It is French tradition to leave a small trinket in the King’s cake. Whoever receives the slice of cake with the trinket in it is the “king” or “queen” of the day. Members made crowns for the new royalty.
“It can be difficult to put the crown together or fitting it around your head, honestly,” Jane Moritz ‘18 said.
The king or queen is usually tasked with hosting the next “l’Epiphanie” party, but obviously the members don’t follow this rule — regardless of who receives the trinket, the French Club will host the next “l’Epiphanie”.
The French Club has recently started selling bonbons. The January meeting is the chance for members to participate in the fundraiser.
“So we’re doing a fundraiser for French Club and it basically consists of the members buying a bag of bonbons and selling them for $1 so they can get their money back,” Secretary Brenda Salazar ‘18 said.
This January meeting is French Club President Kat McFarland ‘16’s first meeting back. She had fallen sick and was unable to attend a couple meetings.
“I was upset when I had to take a leave so it’s good to be back. Everything’s more organized now, and I get to know the members now,” McFarland said. “I kinda missed out on the entire period when the officers got to know each other so I’m really excited to be a part of it now.”
The next meeting will be on Feb. 8. The February meeting will be unique because the members will be making and eating crêpes to celebrate “La Chandeleur”.
“In French, a few years ago, I made crêpes for a project and it was really fun and I love eating them, obviously. They’re really good, I like them as strawberry, chocolate, whipped cream, honey. They’re awesome,” Moritz said.
