La Chandeleur – National Crepe Day

Post written by Lucille, a United Planet Team member

Every year on February 2nd, the French celebrate La Chandeleur—a day when everybody cooks crepes, also known as thin pancakes!

When I was a child, I loved this day because we don’t only cook the crepes, we also take part in a crepe-flipping contest. As part of the contest, we have to flip the crepe and try to catch it in the frying pan. In my family, it was really a great time for everybody! Of course, my younger brother and I always wasted some crepes because we didn’t always succeed in catching them… but as we got older, we got better at it. Now we are very proud to compete with my father to try to make the crepe turn two or three times in the air before catching it! It is a lot of fun and a good occasion to spend time together with family. I think it is the only time during the year when my mother doesn’t have to prepare the meal alone. On La Chandeleur we almost fight to cook!

According to tradition, a contestant should hold a gold coin in their hand while doing this. If they succeed in catching the crepe, it means that they won’t have money trouble during the next year. However, the special coins that we buy for La Chandeleur are too big for me and I never succeed in catching the crepe. I keep on trying every year, but I always end up giving up my coin just to compete in the crepe-flipping contest with my family members! It is also traditional to hold the coin in our writing hands and flip the crepe pan in the other. . .The whole family ends up flipping the crepe this way so as to ensure that our family will be prosperous for the rest of the year!

So, will you try to flip the crepes? And more important, will you be able to catch them…