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The Art of Living in Season
Epiphany:
The art of Welcoming the Stranger
Wise men “from the east” enter the scene on January 6, marking the beginning of Epiphany season and another chapter in the greater narrative that starts in the manger: this story continues, as does our participation in it, so the crèche stays out.
There are other foreigners in the Provençal crèche scene, exiles and residents “from afar.” They also have a role in the great story: they too are santons, little saints. I invite my readers to ponder these things in the chapter on Epiphany.
Le gâteau des Rois (King’s cake), with its little porcelain figure (la fève) hidden inside it, is served at Epiphany all over France.
The person who gets la fève in his or her slice is king or queen for the day – and has to treat the present company to the next cake, and so on until the end of the season.
My book imagines an extended interpretation of this tradition.
The fève custom goes back to medieval times when the figure in the cake was a fava bean (fève, in French), which is why the figurine is still called la fève. The early porcelain fèves, in the late 1800's, used to be representations of baby Jesus or a magi.
Nowadays, one can find a great many different subjects for fèves, from animals to literary figures, and even miniatures santons. Fabophiles are fèves collectors.
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