The Feast of the Epiphany, the time when Jesus manifests Himself to the three kings or the three wise men -- Gaspar, Melcor, and Baltazar -- is celebrated during mass on the first Sunday after New Year's Day in the Philippines. In Bulgaria, men dance in the icy water of the Tundzha River in belief that the one who retrieves the cross from the river and those who dance there are blessed with good health throughout the year. In Spain, they have a Three Kings parade and give gifts to children in the morning of the 6th of January. The Epiphany is celebrated in various ways all over the world. Check out this link for more.
Here in Luxembourg, they have the galette des rois (King's Tart or Pie). It is filled with pomme (apple) or frangipane (almond cream) and is topped with a golden paper crown. Hidden inside the pie is a small image of a child and whoever gets it in his slice of pie receives the crown and becomes king for a day. All bakeshops sell it weeks before January 6.
I learned about this in the blog of a resident here. Good thing, I read it a few days before the actual feast. To go with the flow and to experience something new, I ordered a galette des rois from our neighborhood's bread and bakeshop and brought it home for us to try it out. I was curious about how it tastes and was also excited to introduce Polo to this Luxembourgish tradition.
.... So after dinner, I brought out the galette de rois and served it as dessert partnered with coffee. I like the buttery taste and crumbly texture of the pie's crust. The apple filling was more like compote or apple jam.
Guess who got to play king for the night?
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