Image (plus recipe!) by Tish Boyle.
A thoughtful French reader, Annabelle, wrote in to make sure I knew today was Chandeleur. Apparently, it’s a holiday that involves making and eating stacks of crepes.
I’m totally on board with any holiday involving stacks of crepes! I’ll take mine with berries and whip cream, please. Or maybe Nutella and bananas. Feel free to join me in celebrating. : )
P.S. — Fun fact: When I looked up the wikipedia entry on Chandeleur, it mentioned that in the U.S. and Canada, this holiday was replaced with Groundhog Day. (Happy Groundhog Day, by the way!)
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I can’t remember the last time I had crepes – but it reminds me of the four years of French I took in school. It also reminds me that I can’t remember how to say anything in French even after taking years of it in school. Oh well, at least there are always crepes!
I haven’t heard of that one before and we’ve been in France 6 years (where does the time go?) I’ll have to ask my son if he had crepes at school today x
My kids love crepes! It’s their favorite breakfast. We are partial to Stonewall Kitchen’s crepe mix. I even have a special crepe pan! I think this special day is cause for breakfast at dinner!
I find the idea of Chandeleur far superior to that of ground hog day :)
Agreed.
I would rather have Chandeleur day than Groundhog Day!
Thanx for sharing that with us! I just talked my mom into making a full batch of crepes and declared Crepes Day on my blog!
Yes I posted about it…such a fabulous holiday!!
Wow, finally something worthy of celebrating on my birthday! I will now forever take the high road and celebrate Chandeleur on my birthday, as opposed to finding out what Puxatawnie Phil forsees for our Spring.
I was going to make a pavlova for my birthday cake, but I think we’ll have crepes instead!
Ahhhh, happy to comply. : )
Happy Chandeleur too!
We are eating our goûter with lots of crepes with Bonne Maman strawberry jam and we send you a huge kiss.
I’ll eat to that!
what a wonderful thing to celebrate! Maybe I’ll head to my city’s Creperie!
What? I had no idea! We had crepes for dinner last week but hey, I’m always ready to be talked into making crepes. :)
Loving this holiday while we are in France!! I’m the same – anything that celebrates with Crepes is a great day….Funny fact I found out today (in France) – most French are not quite sure the true significance of the holiday..they just know they eat crepes!! (I asked over 10 different women and men today) – One of my French friends was nice enough to look it up on the internet…:
French Candlemas – La Chandeleur – Crêpe Day
The Catholic holiday of Candlemas, on 2 February, is a feast to commemorate the purification of the Virgin Mary and the presentation of baby Jesus. In France, this holiday is called la Chandeleur, Fête de la Lumière,* or jour des crêpes.
Not only do the French eat a lot of crêpes on Chandeleur, but they also do a bit of fortune telling while making them. It is traditional to hold a coin in your writing hand and a crêpe pan in the other, 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.
I love the part about prosperity for the year!! Happy Chandeleur!
Great sleuthing, Jennifer! The name “Candlemas”/Chandeleur refers to the old Catholic tradition of having a candelit procession to mass on this day (to call to mind Jesus’ presentation in the temple), and then having your own candles blessed for use at home the rest of the year.
There’s a little rhyme that goes along with the day, too, which explains a bit more where the Groundhog Day tradition comes from: “If Candlemas be fair and bright, Winter has another flight. If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, Winter will not come again.” How the groundhog got roped into this, though, I have no idea. ;)
And yes, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate all this than with crepes!
I can’t believe we (US and Canada) replaced this amazing holiday with Groundhog Day! I appreciate where I live, but it’s little things like this that make me long for France…or just Europe in general. I mean…a holiday celebrated with crepes!? Yes, please!
We are totally celebrating this tonight. It has been decided. We have had an awful week with our two year old throwing the worst tantrums in the world and our soon to be born daughter beating on my cervix. I am buying some strawberries and chocolate before I get home and my husband and I are going to pig out (after the two year old goes to bed.) Thanks for inspiring us!
Seriously?! How’d we get stuck with Groundhog Day (cute in an odd way, yes, but compared to a crepe-fest?)
Well, to cope with the ugly winter weather sure to come our way after an unbelievably beautiful February day, I think it’s crepes for dessert.
This just reminded me of how much I want to try to make a mille crepes cake, and how much more than that I want to EAT a mille crepes cake. On the to-do list!
Hi Gabby,
Thanks for the fabulous holiday heads up. I had an unprecedented quiet afternoon (hard with 6 kids 8 years old and under) so I made a batch of crepes, stuffed them with nutella and the world’s best after school snack was born!
Thanks for helping Thursday be a little more special.
I hate to admit it but I’ve never made crepes. Shame on me! I love eating them though!
I would so prefer crepes to groundhogs any day :)