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) 

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