CHRISTMAS IN PROVENCE, FRANCE: CENTURIES-OLD TRADITIONS AND CELEBRATIONS ROOTED IN FRENCH HISTORY©

 

With the Holiday Season underway all around the world, my thoughts turn to one of my favourite places, Provence, located in the south of France.  It is particularly charming and beautiful at this time of year, and includes many unique traditions -- some of which are centuries-old.

Christmas Decorations along Cours Mirabeau
in Aix-en-Provence
Photo Provenance unknown

In Provence, the Christmas Season is called “La Calendale“.  It starts on the 4th of December, the day of the patron Sainte Barbe, i.e., Saint Barbara. (SIDE NOTE: the French calendar attributes most days of the year to a different patron Saint.)  The overall Season ends on the following February 2nd at Candlemas, although Christmas observances and festivities in Provence culminate on the 24th and 25th of December.

According to tradition, the Provençal Christmas season begins on December 4th every year, the day of the patron Sainte Barbe, Saint Barbara’s Day.  This  is when families fill three small dishes—three representing the Trinity—with wet cotton balls sprinkled with wheat or lentil seeds. These seeds are kept moist in the hopes that they will sprout.  Twenty days later, on December 24th, if the wheat or lentil shoots have grown straight and green, the young shoots are wrapped in yellow and red ribbons, and the finest crop is placed on the Christmas table and believed to be a sign that there will be a good harvest or a positive financial outlook the next year.  On the following day, Christmas Day, the wrapped shoots are used to decorate the Nativity scene, remainging there to thrive until Epiphany in January.  Thereafter, the sprouted shoots are planted.

Towns all over France have Nativity Scenes called crèches, but in Provence they are uniquely different because they don't depict Jesus, Mary, and Joseph surrounded by the Wise Men. Instead, the "crèche provençal" is filled with santons, which are adorable little figurines that depict characters from village life like the baker and the fishwife. This is because the display of crèches, like much of religious life, was banned during the French Revolution which forbade public nativities.

Consequently, “private” nativities developed in Provençal homes. A clever artist from Marseille, Jean Louis Lagnel, a native of Marseille, invented "santons" in 1800 and turned the crèche into a village scene using his figurines instead of the usual Biblical characters. These miniature figurines originally were made from moulds and used crustless bread. This tradition was passed down from father to son with a great deal of secrecy from the 19th Century onwards. Ironically, the anti-religious zealots of the French Revolution somehow missed the fact that the word santon means “little saint.” Today, the santons are generally made from either argyle or earthenware and are painted and dressed.  The profession of Santonnier is now recognized as a traditional Provençal craft.

Parades take place all over Provence during the Christmas season, with songs played on fifes and tambourines and townspeople in traditional dress.  Especially popular is the lady’s Arlésienne outfit, a long, flowing dress with scarves over the shoulders, and hair pinned up. One of the most entertaining parades is La Bravade Calendale of Aix-en-Provence which originated during the mid-13th Century in the year 1256 instituted by Charles 1st of Anjou, Count of Provence, upon his returning from the Crusade with his brother Saint Louis. It marks the Winter Solstice (St. John the Evangelist), the longest night of the year. Very close to Christmas, the "Winter Saint John" celebrates the passage to the new year.  Parade participants are dressed in colourful costumes, some prance about dressed as dancing horses, young men with huge flags spin and hurl the flags in the air like jugglers, and the procession includes music, games and dances.

This event is also a reminder of the custom of The Offering, when in the past on Christmas Day, groups of musicians would go around to the town's authorities, offering them, to the tune of music, the "Christmas oil pump" that the Provençals are so fond of, and using a multitude of more than 200 actors from all over the region performing in the Provençal tradition with blunderbusses and who enliven the Aix with splendour and colour.

La Bravade Calendale
in Aix-en-Provence

The traditional Christmas Dinner in Provence, known as Le Gros Souper, The Great Supper, occurs on Christmas Eve.  The Dinner concludes with Les Treize Desserts (The 13 Desserts).  Like many Christmas traditions, it is full of religious symbolism—13 representing the number of people at the Last Supper -- Jesus and the 12 Apostles.  Before the Midnight Mass, this meal is served on three white tablecloths of different sizes, with three candelabras on the table representing the Holy Trinity, and three wheat saucers filled with the spouts from the seeds planted on Saint Barbara's Day, twenty days earlier on December 4th.  The composition of the desserts varies according to region, canton, city and even family, and generally includes fresh and candied fruit, nougats, and fruit pastes.  It is traditional to set an extra place setting for the poor man (le pauvre) which refers to someone who has died, but it can also be a beggar who passes by and asks for alms. The poor man’s share is a reminder of the story of the Holy Family, who found no one to welcome them that night.

Traditional Provence Christmas Eve Dinner Table
with the 13 Desserts
Photo Credit: Véronique Pagnier 

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(Primary Sources and Photo credits:  Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur Tourism Board;  Provence Days;  French Moments; Véronique Pagnier; The Good Life France;  Perfectly Provence;  aixenprovence.fr) 

©2023 Snobby Tours®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

"THE WALLIS": CELEBRATING ITS 10th YEAR AS THE PREMIER PERFORMING ARTS VENUE IN BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA©

In 2014, we published our first Snobby Tours® Travelblog article on The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, more often referred to as "The Wallis", shortly after it opened to the public in October of 2013.

The Wallis, the first performing arts center to be built in City of Beverly Hills, transformed an entire Beverly Hills city block near the Civic Center into a vibrant new cultural destination with TWO distinct, elegant buildings -- and was completed in time for its 2013-2014 Inaugural Season to correspond with Beverly Hills' Centennial Celebration marking the 100th birthday of the City's incorporation.

The most notable of the two buildings is the much loved historic 1933 Italianate-style Beverly Hills Post Office built as a WPA project during the Franklin Roosevelt administration.  For decades some of Beverly Hills' most recognizable residents from film and television kept post office boxes there, such as Fred Astaire and Jimmy Stewart.

Also in 2013, the City of Beverly Hills designated the Beverly Hills Post Office as a historical landmark, under the City's new Historic Preservation Ordinance.  The building had previously received designation on the National Register of Historic Places by the US Department of the Interior.

Seven years later, in 2021, we "revisited" The Wallis in an update for our Travelblog, and explored its interesting architectural additions to the original Post Office building.

A striking 70,000 sq. ft. building, The Wallis itself is an excellent example of "constructivism architecture", a futuristic-looking style which developed in the 1920s and 1930s in the former Soviet Union that combined technology and engineering, and applied a 3-dimensional Cubist vision to entire abstract non-objective constructions by adding a kinetic element.

Although this movement in artistic expression borrowed ideas from the Cubism and Futurism movements, the interpretation in architectural expression for The Wallis superimposed ideas from the Bauhaus, Suprematism and Neo-Plasticism movements.

The façade of The Wallis, comprised of fiber cement, is evocative of envelopes being sorted -- an homage to the historic Post Office on the same site.

During the past 10 years, The Wallis has garnered six prestigious architectural awards, including a Los Angeles Architectural Civic Award and an AIA California Council Merit Award for Design in the Adaptive Reuse/Renovation/Historic Preservation category.  The original 1933 Post Office building contains eight towering fresco murals which are one of two sets of WPA frescos remaining in the entire California Federal Building system.

Additionally, The Wallis has come to be recognized as a dynamic cultural hub and community resource where local, national, and international artists share their artistry with ever-expanding audiences.  Distinguished by its eclectic programming that mirrors the diverse landscape of Los Angeles and its location in the entertainment capital of the world, The Wallis has produced and presented more than 400 theater, dance, music, film, cabaret, comedy, performance arts, and family entertainment programs, boasting nominations for 79 Ovation Awards, and for 9 L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards.

NOTE:  "The Wallis"  is included in our "Los Angeles Architecture -- An Eclectic Landscape"©  custom-designed itinerary. For more information about this unique and comprehensive heritage and cultural tour covering L.A.'s architectural history from "early settlement to the present", visit us at http://www.snobbytours.com/EclecticLAarchitecture.html  

Reservations close on February 15th of the specified calendar year that we offer this Tour.

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(Primary sources and photo credits:  thewallis.org; stageandcinema.com; archdaily.com; spfa.com; John Edward Linden Photography)

©2023 Snobby Tours®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

THE PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM: ONE OF THE USA'S OLDEST, CONTINUING OPERATIONAL MUSEUMS AND LOCATED IN ONE OF THE MOST INFAMOUS PLACES IN AMERICAN HISTORY©

 

Located in Salem, Massachusetts in Essex County, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) origins date back to the 1799 founding of the East India Marine Society (EIMS), an organization of Salem captains and supercargoes that had sailed beyond the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. The Society’s charter included a provision for the establishment of a 'cabinet of natural and artificial curiosities' -- what we today refer to as a 'museum'.

The East India Marine Society built the East India Marine Hall in the 1820s to house its Collection of "curiosities" acquired by the Salem sea captains on their oceanic excursions.   The Marine Hall, which now is a National Historic Landmark, is an integral part of PEM's facilities.

East India Marine Hall
circa 1909

Salem was also home to the Essex Historical Society founded in 1821, which celebrated the area’s rich community history, and the Essex County Natural History Society (ECNHS) founded in 1833, which focused on the County’s natural wonders.  In 1848, these two organizations merged to form the Essex Institute which represents the “Essex” in the Peabody Essex Museum’s name.

The Collection located in the Marine Hall was acquired in 1867 by the Peabody Academy of Science, later renamed the Peabody Museum along with the Marine Hall building which continued to serve as a museum space through these mergers and acquisitions.

Salem, Massachusetts, however, is more often associated with the infamous Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s during a period of great misguidance and superstition which led to false accusations of witchcraft levied at women, men and children of the community by a number of  Salem's citizens.  Ultimately, 25 innocent people were put to death.

 "Examination of a Witch"
Thompkins H. Matteson, 1853.

In the following centuries, the Salem Witch Trials have become known as an infamous part of American history that has forever associated Salem. Massachusetts with intolerance and injustice.  The personal tragedies and grievous wrongs of the Salem Witch Trials continue to provoke reflection, reckoning and a search for meaning by residents and visitors to Salem.

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) holds one of the world’s most important collections of objects and architecture related to the Salem Witch Trials.  Through exhibitions, research, publishing and public programming, the Peabody Essex Museum is committed to telling the story of the Salem Witch Trials in ways that honor the victims and amplify the teachings of wrongful persecution that have current relevancy.

From 1980 to 2023, PEM’s Phillips Library was the temporary repository of the state’s Supreme Judicial Court collection of Witch Trial documents. These legal records were returned in 2023 to the Judicial Archives following the expansion and modernization of the Massachusetts State Archives facility,

The earliest formal recognition of a library was by the East India Marine Society, founded in 1799.  Among the first documented acquisitions of the EIMS were “The Art of Medicine Among the Chinese,” dated 1741, and copies of voyages by Cook and La Perouse, as well as other maritime-related materials.

Concurrently during the early 1800s, the Essex County Natural History Society (ECNHS) had been operating in relative obscurity;  however, in 1848 when it merged with the Essex Historical Society, the new entity took the name “Essex Institute,” combining both the museum and library Collections.  Over the next 20 years, the library Collection grew to approximately 50,000 bound volumes.  In 1867, the East India Marine Society became the Peabody Academy of Science, later known as the Peabody Museum of Salem.

The Phillips Library Collection is the result of the merger more than 100 years later in 1992 of the James Duncan Phillips Library of the Essex Institute with the Stephen Phillips Library of the Peabody Museum of Salem which resulted in the consolidated Peabody Essex Museum.  The present Collection at PEM covers a broad range of subjects, in both print and manuscript form, serving researchers from around the world.

Early Territorial Map in the Phillips Library

Also included in PEM's Collection is local historic architecture located within three historic city blocks on the PEM campus in Salem where there are buildings, gardens and varying architectural styles spanning three Centuries.  The Peabody Essex Museum has been a pioneer in the acquisition, relocation, restoration, and interpretation of historic environments.  In 1865 the Museum reconstructed the Quaker Meeting House from beams thought to be original to the First Church.  In 1910, under the direction of curator and early preservationist George Francis Dow, the Museum moved the John Ward House — split in two and rolled on ox-drawn logs — from its original site three blocks away.  In 1911 the Ward House opened to the public, becoming the first outdoor museum of architecture in the country.  Since then, the Peabody Essex Museum has grown to include more than twenty pre-Civil War buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks and many properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Ropes Mansion
in the McIntyre Historic District 
Architect: Samuel McIntyre (1757-1811)

Today, PEM's Collection is very extensive, containing over one-millions works of art and culture -- many that are the first to be collected by any museum in America.  Included are Japanese, South Asian, European, African, Native American, Maritime Art and History, Fashion and Textiles, Oceanic Art, Photography and Natural History, among others.  According to PEM, "deep and far ranging, the Collection opens windows onto how people live, work and celebrate".

Currently on view in PEM's James Duncan Phillips Trust Gallery is the Special Exhibition, "Let None Be Excluded: The Origin of Equal School Rights in Salem", which celebrates Salem's abolishing racially separate public schools in 1844.  "Salem was one of the first US municipalities to do so. A decade later, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would become the first US State to pass a law forbidding school committees from classifying students by race."

This Special Exhibition "features documents that capture the impassioned activism of young Black leaders, including Sarah Parker Remond and Robert Morris.  These youth, as agents in their own education, sparked the national equal school rights movement by tethering education rights to democracy and racial equality." 

This Special Exhibition continues through April 28, 2024.

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(Primary sources and photo credits: Peabody Essex Museum; libraries.org) 

©2023 Snobby Tours®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

AVIGNON, FRANCE: A CHARMING ANCIENT CITY WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF ANNUAL CULTURAL FESTIVALS©

 

Avignon, located in Provençe near the Rhône river in the South of France, was once a Greek trading post and dates as far back as the 6th Century B.C.E.  In the 2nd Century B.C.E., it became part of the Roman Empire and was designated as a Roman colony by the Emperor Hadrian.  Following the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th Century C.E., Avignon became a base of Christian worship which at that time was Roman Catholic.  During the late Middle Ages, from 1378 to 1417,C.E., it was the location of "The Great (Western) Schism", when France's Roman Catholic leadership broke with Rome and established the center of is own Papal power in Avignon's Palais des Papes, i.e., Palace of the Popes.

15th Century miniature of the
Palais des Papes and city of Avignon
 

Today, evidence of Roman occupation as well as of its time as a Papal City, still exists, even though Avignon has become a charming bustling city filled with eclectic historical architecture spanning various centuries and styles, and well known for its vibrant cultural scene with festivals occurring all year round.

With so much history and cultural arts available, Avignon thoroughly enchanted me when I first visited it almost 30 years ago, and has continued to do so ever since.

Among its annual cultural festivals is Festo Pitcho in April dedicated to families and young audiences, the famous Festival d’Avignon and Festival Off in July, Tremplin Jazz d'Avignon in early August showcasing both emerging and established jazz musicians, Parcours de l’Art in October focusing on contemporary visual artists, the Festival of Comics and Comic Strips in November, the contemporary dance festival Les Hivernales during the early Winter months into the Holiday Season, and the Résonance electro music festival in heritage venues -- to name just a few.

Three of these festivals are highlighted herein below in this article.

Festival d'Avignon, held in July each year, was created in 1947 by a man named Jean Vilar, shortly after World War II.  For 17 years, between 1947-1963, the Festival reflected the work of this one man and his vision who is credited with attracting a young captivated and fresh audience through a type of live outdoor theatre encompassing dance, cinematic and musical performances that were different from what could be seen in Paris at that time. His goal was to "renew" theatre and collective forms of art by providing a more open space for their expression and enjoyment.

The result was the revitalization and decentralization of French live theatre which inspired other theatre directors around France outside of Paris in what were then considered "cultural deserts", such as Saint Etienne, Toulouse, Rennes and Strasbourg, to do the same.  The Festival d'Avignon became a meeting place for these stage pioneers and at the same time, an eagerly-anticipated annual summer cultural event in France.

Photo Credit: Cour d'Honneur du Palais des Papes, 2015

© Christophe Raynaud de Lage / Festival d'Avignon

Over the years, Festival d'Avignon has evolved in both its programming and outreach.  Since 2013, the direction of the Festival has focused on showcasing artists from all over the world, on creating a viable means of serving public cultural policy, on diversifying its audience, on perpetuating the historical legacy of Avignon, and on becoming a Festival with a unique international reputation welcoming to all.  In July of 2023, it celebrated its 76th year.

Parcours de l’Art has been supported by the city of Avignon for almost 30 years, since 1994.  The goal of this annual festival is to cultival and support contemporary art and to address all audiences. whether locally-based or from places worldwide, whether new to contemporary art or longtime contemporary art fans -- while paying particular attention to the youngest attendees.

Held in October each year, Parcours de l'Art  takes over heritage sites around Avignon in order to present contemporary art works in different forms: paintings, drawings, sculpture, photographs, videos, installations, performances, and the like.  Free access, freedom of movement, and tailor-made mediation encourage dialogue between artists and the public, making the event accessible to everyone.  In 2022, the four heritage sites used were the Célestins church, the Cloître Saint-Louis, the Cordeliers chapel and the Maison Jean Vilar.

Maison Jean Vilar
Avignon heritage site for 2022 Parcours de l'Art
Photo credit: Christophe Raynaud de Lage

Parcours de l'Art creates excitement around current art in the heart of the city through exhibitions but also by offering complementary activities: children's workshops, conferences and debates, readings and film/video screenings. 

The theme of the 29th annual presentation of Parcours de l'Art is  "Ricochets", being held October 6-22, 2023.  Avignon's heritage sites are the showcases for contemporary works selected around the theme of water.  At a time when water is becoming a rare and precious resource on Earth, it has come to be a subject that is timely, relevant, "political and poetic, powerful, inspiring, [and] universal".  Therefore, Parcours de L'Art's artistic journey in 2023 is built on the Avignon water cartography.

Additionally, for the first time since its inception, Parcours de l'Art  is organizing an artist residency in 2023. The original frescoes from this first residency will be placed on the walls of the city of Avignon as this festival prepares for its 30th year in 2024.

Tremplin Jazz d'Avignon, held in annually in August, is a jazz festival featuring young artists. Over the course of an entire week, each evening is devoted to well-known jazz musicians and bands from all around Europe.  The location is the Carmes Cloister which provides a setting within stone walls that is conducive to enjoying jazz.

Created 31 years ago in 1992 by a few jazz enthusiasts, the Tremplin Jazz d'Avignon Association, aimed to promote jazz music and support young musicians as part of an annual competition.  Thereafter, from year to year, concerts have been organized around this mission.

Over the years Templin Jazz organizers have remained faithful to its objectives: to encourage mixing cultures through the discovery of jazz music, to offer a programming mix of free concerts where the young, European jazz scene competes in talent, and to provide outstanding concerts which present established artists -- all covering a range of jazz styles and spanning the generations.

The venue for Tremplin Jazz d'Avignon is Cloître des Carmes, more commonly called Carmes Cloister, a former monastery consisting of a cluster of buildings which were constructed commencing in 1267 C.E. when the religious Order of the Carmelites came to Avignon.  This was approximately 125 years prior to the Great (Western) Schism, and a time when many monasteries were being built in the city.  Avignon had become the official residence of the Catholic Popes and the Catholic Church headquarters within the Palais des Papes, both of which had recently moved from Rome to Avignon.

Interior courtyeard of Carmes Cloister
Photo credit: Christophe Raynaud de Lage
 

The Convent itself is outside the first city wall, between the gate of Matheron and the gate of Nurses.  The Senate is in the northern part of the Church structure which is in the Romanesque and Gothic architectural style popular in the 13th Century.

Not only is Carmes Cloister the venue for Tremplin Jazz each year in August, but also it was the first site in Avignon in 1967 to become a theatre and dance venue during the Festival d'Avignon discussed herein above. The acoustics within the Medieval stone walls are particularly favourable for live performances, and an open-air stage which extends under the arcades can accommodate approximately 500 spectators.

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(Primary sources and additional photo credits:  parcoursdelart.com;  Avignon Tourisme;  festival.avignon.com;  templinjazzavignon.fr;  laprovence.com;  minube.net)

©2023 Snobby Tours®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

BROOKLYN CHILDREN'S MUSEUM: THE WORLD'S FIRST CHILDREN'S MUSEUM©

 

Inspired by the energy and multi-cultural diversity existing in the New York borough of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Children’s Museum (BCM) is known for creating experiences that ignite curiosity, celebrate identity and cultivate joyful learning.

The Museum was founded following a proposal from the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (now the Brooklyn Museum) on December 16, 1899, in the Adams House.   It  initially operated under the direction of the Brooklyn Institute and received approximately $70,000 in funds from New York City each year to supplement the donations it received.  It is the first Children's Museum in the USA, and is believed also to be the first Children's Museum in the world.

In 1975, the BCM moved to an award-winning new space, housed underneath Brower Park in Crown Heights, Brooklyn,at St Mark's and Brooklyn Avenues, following the demolition of the Victorian-era houses that had served as its prior home.   This location is considered unusual because it is in a predominantly residential area.  Housed in a multi-level underground gallery following the 1975 move, the underground gallery has provided the ideal venue for arranging evolving exhibits.

In 1996, the Museum was once again renovated and expanded at a cost of $7-million to include miniature amphitheaters and a number of new galleries.

Brooklyn Children’s Museum (BCM) is New York City’s largest cultural institution designed especially for families.  It serves 300,000 children and their parents/caregivers annually by providing them with unique and engaging exhibits and educational programs grounded in visual arts, music and performance, natural science, and world. cultures.

 

The Museum's Collection and exhibitions reflect its long history as well as the changes in children's educational needs over time and the changing environment.  Its original focus was the presentation of natural science to children raised in an urban environment, but following World War II, technology and cultural awareness became more important.  Children regularly contribute extensively in the planning of museum exhibits, and have done so for a significant part of its history.

In keeping with its original underlying philosophy, BCM seeks to foster a culture of inclusion that promotes mutual respect, celebrates diversity, and facilitates intercultural exploration and collaboration.  The exhibits and programs of the Brooklyn Children's Museum are rooted in the following:

• Interdisciplinary and inquiry-based learning grounded in BCM's extensive Collection which encourages children to explore their world from multiple perspectives.
• Sensory learning through hands-on, immersive interactive experiences.
• Development of an appreciation of culture and community, with a focus on "socio-emotional learning" and interpersonal relationships.
• Substantive engagement of parent-child dialogues and ongoing availability of family resources.
• The encouragement of children to think of themselves as active participants in effecting community change who can  inspire responsible and civic engagement.

In all of its work and business practice, BCM commits to its Brooklyn community by:

• Serving all families regardless of their ability to pay.
• Building community for parents and children.
• Reaching beyond its physical site into schools and other neighborhoods.
• Using local vendors and supporting small businesses.
• Employing Brooklyn residents and supporting their families by paying 100% of the health premiums for staff, their spouses and dependents.
• Providing space for, and sharing resources with, other Brooklyn-based and community-based organizations.

In 2005, BCM was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20-million grant from the Carnegie Foundation which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In the same year, work began on the $43-million expansion that would ultimately nearly double the size of the museum, and handle more than 400,000 visitors each year.   As part of its commitment to environmental integrity and energy efficiency, the institution has taken credit for being the first New York City museum to use geothermal wells for heating and cooling purposes.  After the BCM underwent this expansion and renovation to double its space, upon its reopening on September 20, 2008, the BCM became the first "green museum" in New York City.

 

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(Primary Sources and Photo Credits: brooklynkids.org; Simon Watson (September 2001). "Heart of Brooklyn", Gotham Gazette; Media related to Brooklyn Children's Museum at Wikimedia Commons; Miscellaneous archival articles published between 1905-2008 by The New York Times)

© 2023 Snobby Tours^®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.