Christmas traditions in Provence | Pays d'Aubagne et de l'Étoile

Advent festivities

Four weeks to prepare for Christmas!

Saint Barbara’s Day

“Quand lou blad vèn bèn, tout vèn bèn!”,“When the wheat goes well, everything goes well! a prediction of prosperity for the coming year:

It all starts on 4 December, Saint Barbara’s Day, patron saint of firemen, miners and artillerymen.
This is the day when a few wheat, lentil and/or chickpea seeds are placed in three ” sietoun ” (saucers).
These seeds give rise to stalks that are placed on the table on Christmas Eve.

For the people of Provence, the better the sprouts grow, with beautiful, straight, green stalks, the more prosperous the year will be, as wheat will be a sign of resources for the family throughout the year. Today, it’s clearly one of the Calendales traditions most present in the households of the Pays d’Aubagne et de l’Étoile. But let’s put our wheat aside and prepare for the rest of the festivities…

Strolling and decorating

This is the perfect time to decorate the inside of your home. As well as the traditional Christmas tree, nativity scenes, complete with santons, are a must in Provence. Come and discover the town’s emblematic cots on a guided tour of Aubagne at cot time.
Placed on a piece of furniture in the house, in the corner of a shelf or on a decoration set up for the occasion, the setting up of the cot makes it possible to spend a pleasant moment with the family.
Some keep to tradition, while others try to innovate by introducing more contemporary characters, such as Playmobil, Lego and other heroic figurines that children try in vain to hide in the cot…
The cot depicts the Nativity, the shepherd and his sheep, the Three Wise Men, but above all it is a representation of the population of a village where all the social classes and trades rub shoulders: the drummer, the miller, the fishmonger, the mayor, the greengrocer, Grasset and Grassette, the bowlers, the delighted man, and many others, bring this décor of moss, bark and thyme branches to life…
Each year, the family decides to add a new santon to this array of characters.
The people of the Pays d’Aubagne et de l’Étoile and the surrounding region come together at the Marché aux Santons et à la Céramique d’hiverto stroll between the stalls of santon and creche makers, who present their latest creations alongside their classic santons and accessories.

The Aubagne Santon Market is also an opportunity to admire the illuminations, take the kids to the funfair and head to the Christmas Market to prepare the dishes for the Gros Souper Provençal and the thirteen desserts.
Food, crafts, decorations and gift ideas await you, right next to the ice rink and Santa’s house.

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Allées du marché au santon et à la céramique d'hiver - Santons Escoffier, santons Chave, santons Le Moulin à huile - OTI Aubagne
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EB OTI Aubagne

Tasting time

On Christmas Eve, after laying out three white tablecloths, your ” sietoun ” of wheat, Nerthe, holly and the rose of Jericho. The dishes for the big supper take their place on the table.
Most often made up of seven lean dishes, without meat, depending on the social class and habits of each family, the arrival of produce, the land and its production, the menus are different in the four corners of Provence.
In spite of everything, the best products are kept and the table is laid with snails, cod, mussels, cardoons, celery, vegetable gratin, carde, aïoli, omelette, brandade…

After the big supper, it’s time for midnight mass, often celebrated in Provençal.
Mass is accompanied by a live nativity scene and Provençal carols, accompanied by flutes and tambourines.
This ceremony brings together church-goers and non-church-goers, as well as those who appreciate the traditional and folkloric aspects of the ceremony.
You’ll find the ritual of the Shepherding, where a procession of cherubs, little shepherds, young girls and drummers escort a lamb brought “as an offering” by the shepherds, which is not sacrificed but receives a blessing. At the end of mass, it’s time to lay the baby Jesus in the cot, and above all to enjoy the Thirteen Desserts, the only moment of abundance during the Advent festivities.

The thirteen desserts are a bone of contention among the people of Provence, because the list of thirteen desserts changes and evolves according to the region, even if some are unavoidable.
For example, the people of Aix prefer Calissons to Navettes des Marseillais, while others choose gibassier rather than pompe à l’huile, or fougasse with orange blossom in the region of Nice.
There are more than fifty different desserts throughout Provence, but some are essential:
– La pompe à huile broken with the hands and eaten with cooked wine,
– the four mendiants: dried figs, sultanas, almonds and hazelnuts,
– black and white nougats,
– dates and fruits such as apples, pears, melons and fresh grapes.
To these we can add calissons, navettes, quince or fruit paste, mandarin oranges.
Personally, I can’t think of a list of thirteen desserts without a few bugnes and oreillettes made by my mother!

Until Candlemas

Étrennes, the March of Kings and Pastorale ...

Comic scenes and traditions

In January, you can attend La Pastorale, where the sacred and the profane mingle.
La Pastorale is a pilgrimage, a race to the miraculous where santons come to life on the stage.

There are many different Pastorales, written either by great authors, such as the Pastorale Maurel, or by the villagers themselves.
Spoken and sung most often in the Provençal language and based around the nativity scene, the Pastorale evokes a pilgrimage led by shepherds, revealing the life of a typical Provençal village with comic and entertaining scenes.

Shepherds, millers, grinders, pistachios, farmhands, Roustide, Jourdan, Margarido, Grasset, Grassette and many others wake up throughout the acts to join the nativity scene.
This is a play that blends the nativity scene with everyday life in 19th-century Provence.

At the beginning of the year, young people will appreciate the étrennes, when the elders hand out a few coins.
This tradition dates back to the Roman Empire, when a New Year’s gift was given to friends, family acquaintances and even the emperor.

The tradition evolved, and gifts began to be given to tradespeople who provided services to the community but were not sufficiently remunerated. Today, these gifts are still given to firemen, refuse collectors, the postman at the time of the calendar round… but above all to the children of the family.

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Bar Provencal Cartes Village Des Santons Musee Aubagne Oti Aubagne
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JPVallorani

Melchior, Balthazar and Gaspar

During this period when the Three Kings are celebrated, bakeries decorate their windows with pretty golden crowns, because it’s now time for Epiphany: on 6 January, Melchior, Balthazar and Gaspar finish their long journey and arrive in front of the Nativity.

Unlike most of France, where Epiphany is celebrated with a Galette des Rois topped with frangipane, in Provence it’s the Gâteau des Rois that’s served for dessert!
It is usually flavoured with orange blossom and proudly bears candied fruit, symbolising the precious stones offered by the Three Wise Men.

The youngest of the Three Kings hides under the table and distributes the slices, designating the King who finds the bean and his subject. Whoever inherits the subject must offer the next Three Kings cake.

This tradition continues right up until Candlemas, when there is no shortage of opportunities to enjoy this crown with friends, family or at work.

On the second Sunday of the month, Balthazar Melchior and Gaspar can be seen marching through the streets of Provence’s villages to join the church and the Pastorale playing “La Marcho di Rèi”, a song celebrating the arrival of the Three Kings and the Epiphany.

A final festive season…

At the beginning of February, the Calendales festivities come to an end with Candlemas.
It’s a last moment of family sharing over a variety of dishes, and it’s also the time to take down the cot and put the Santons away in their little boxes in the attic.

Do you know why the crêpe predominates on French tables during Candlemas?
Since the Middle Ages, people have eaten wheat-based dishes to attract spring more quickly, according to the belief. Later, years of famine and shortages gave rise to the fine wheat lace we now call a crêpe.

In Provence, as well as crêpes, on 2 February you can eat bugnes, oreillettes and, above all, navettes, which, in the shape of a boat, represent the landing of a statue of the Black Madonna on the shores of Provence.

I could also have told you about the Yule log, “Lou Cachio Fiò”, which is burnt on Christmas Eve.
I could have gone into detail about the pastrage, the New Year, the lottery season, Saint Luce, New Year’s Eve and many other Provençal traditions…

But now you’ve got all the information you need to come and spend a weekend or more in the Pays d’Aubagne et de l’Étoile during the Christmas and New Year period!

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