Europäische Weihnacht – in Vielfalt geeint - Sutter GmbH & Co. KG

Frankreich/France
and beat to create a very fluffy mixture. Unroll
the sponge, cover with half of the cream, roll up
again and cool for at least 2 hours. Fill the
remaining cream into a piping bag and cool.
After cooling, use the star-shaped tip on the
piping bag to run dense lines along the log, creating
the look of bark. Cool again for at least 2
hours.
Then cut two slices and lean on as branches.
The log can be decorated with chopped pistachio
(as moss) and icing sugar (as snow).
Following such an opulent meal the children tend to
sleep deep, even if it was their intention to surprise
the Père Noël (Father Christmas) as he arrives
through the chimney and places the gifts in the boots
left under the sapin de Noël (Christmas tree). They
are sure to know that he passed not only because
of the gifts he left behind, but also because of the
traces of ashes as proof that he departed through
the chimney.
Particular care must be applied in France during the
Christmas holidays to the open fire: 1) – it must not
go out; 2) it must not cast a high shadow, and 3) the
fire must not come into contact with iron. Only if
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these three rules are strictly observed will the Christmas
fire bring good fortune throughout the entire
year. (Some home owners trying to avoid the midnight
mass use this superstition as a perfect excuse.)
In France, the art of building nativity scenes has a
long and interesting history. Not only in the capital
of Paris, where year after year a huge tent is home to
the world’s largest nativity scene, but even Provence
and other rural regions host genuine works of
nativity scenes to be admired. The originator of this
tradition in France is Jean-Louis Lagnel (*1764
†1822), who next to the usual main characters, the
santons, created numerous onlookers to the holy happenings,
which look like the craftsmen in his Marseille
district. Originally, the figures are made of
wood or shaped from clay. Therese Neveu (*1866
†1946) had the original idea to knead little Jesus,
Maria and Joseph and all other characters from
dough and bake them. The abbot Cesar Sumien
(*1858 †1934) introduced the “dressed little saint” and
tailored the right clothes for the figures of the crib. An
unusual character which is found in France only is
particularly eye-catching: a young man who, on seeing
Jesus, raises his arms in astonishment. This is le
Ravi, the village idiot. French family fathers are
committed to their crib with the same dedication as
model makers of miniature trains elsewhere, and it is
their greatest pleasure to buy a new crib character
every year. Their production and sale has long become
good business. The sky is the limit when it comes to
imagining the design of ever new characters at the
Provence factories, and even famous film actors such
as Raimu or Yves Montand, who played in the
movies based on the novels by Marcel Pagnol (*1895
†1974) these days are incognito visitors to the antique
crib plays. One of the most famous manufacturers,
Marcel Carbonel, has 754 different crib characters
in his range and annually sells around 250,000
santons. The biennale of the art of Santonnier has
been regularly taking place in Aubagne, the birth
place of Pagnol and the metropolis of the French art
of crib making, since 1994.
The most popular French Christmas carol Petit Papa
Noël, found its way under just about every sapin
de Noël following the interpretation by Tino Rossi
(*1907 †1983) in 1960.