quoi de neuf? | Issue #3
Quoi de neuf for Sunday, December 27th?
Well, let me tell you…
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The Week in Review
N.B: While not all of these news are about France, you can read about all of them in French, as the links go to authentic French news sources.
If someone keeps calling you by the wrong name… it means they like you?
Artificial intelligence can now judge your Spotify playlists. Hey, it was a tough year, back off…
The first vaccine was just given in France to a 78-year-old woman.
This New Zealand village turned off its lights to protect their birds.
Speaking of birds… Austria is standing up for turkeys.
Can the public debt be erased? ($$)
The E.U. and Great Britain found an accord on fishing…. kind of.
Yes, chocolate can be good for you. (The less holiday guilt, the better…)
A French artificial heart, the first of its kind, will soon be available in Europe.
Did Neanderthals hibernate to survive extreme winters?
The Paris police are no longer allowed to use drones to monitor protests.
A letter to Santa Claus from the 1930s resurfaced in Strasbourg.
Nemo, the First Dog of France, is fighting against animal abandonment.
Why American intellectuals love Paris. ($$)
This French rapper just had the best album debut on Spotify… ever.
Why the bank card is the new “queen of payments”.
Steel is pretty bad for the environment. Sweden is trying to change that.
The end of an era: The iconic movie studio MGM is for sale.
Good news: The population of leopards in India grew 60% in four years.
Micro-plastics are everywhere… including inside fetuses.
2020: The year that self-care became a thing — even for guys.
Why Covid-19 won’t be our last pandemic. (Sorry).
The biggest edible forest in Europe? It might be in France.
The rise of vegan pastries. ($$)
Cassini, the man who designed France.
Do soccer players earn too much money?
The Deep Dive
What did you eat this Christmas? I’m still recovering…
Just as the English eat pudding, the Costa Ricans eat tamales, and North Americans bring the turkey and stuffing back out for the big day, the French have their own dîner de Noël mainstays. There’s seafood (smoked salmon, anyone?), a lot of foie gras (of course), and… the bûche of Noël.
This iconic dessert, popular in the country as well as with its neighbor Belgium, is essentially a rolled-up sponge cake with chocolate frosting, sometimes extravagantly decorated, resembling a real-life bûche, or log.
It might surprise you to find out that the traditional bûche de Noël isn’t, however, French — or even edible! True to its name, the original log was just that, a log, or rather a large trunk of a tree. The bigger the better! Families would go out and harvest an especially robust and good-looking one, anoint it with wine, and incrementally burn it during the Twelve Days of Christmas, to usher in the winter solstice, celebrate the rebirth of the sun, and for general good luck in the cold time of the year. Supposedly, the sparks and embers from the burning log, and its shadows cast on the walls, could also help predict events for the upcoming year.
Tracking down this custom’s exact origins is more difficult, although the tradition likely started in medieval times as a pagan rite in Northern Europe, whether by Germanic peoples, Celts, or Scandinavians. Either way, it quickly spread throughout continent, including in England, and even made it to the United States.
Although this tradition has been largely replaced by the edible version, the ancient ways are still alive and well under the name of cacho fio (blessing of the log) in the French regions of Provence and Brittany. A religious ceremony (the pagan aspect has long been purged) involving both the youngest and oldest members of the household, the ashes are kept until the next year to help light the new log.
It’s a common refrain this time of year, but with increasing consumerism and focus on gift-giving and -receiving, it’s nice to reflect on the simplicity and beauty of past traditions – and perhaps even think about incorporate them in these modern times!
Happy holidays to all.