For those of you who are wishing Christmas could last a little longer so we can enjoy its lights, love, and feasting, allow me to present the 13 desserts of Christmas, a Provencal tradition. In Provence, Reveillon on Christmas Eve is a highly ritualized meal that starts with a simple seven-dish, meatless dinner served before Midnight Mass. It generally featured salt cod and stewed vegetables. The seven dishes honor the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary. Then, after Mass, the rejoicing and feasting truly begins with the 13 desserts!
These honor Jesus and the 12 apostles. Every Provencal family and village has its own list and they are all different, as befits a fiercely independent people. In theory, there is an official list created in 1998, but no true Provencal (Prouvencau en langue d’oc) will submit to someone else’s list!
The glorious 13 generally include:
1. Fresh fruits – clementines, oranges, pears
2. Calisson D’Aix (oval, almond paste sweets – you can get them from Williams-Sonoma sometimes)
3. Chocolates
4. Dried fruits and nuts, symbolizing the 4 mendicant monastic orders, starting with dry figs (Franciscans)
5. Almonds (Carmelites)
6. Raisins (Dominicans)
7. Hazelnuts (Augustinians)
8. Dates (symbol of Christ who was born in the desert)
9. Nougat (both brittle black (impurity) and soft white (purity)
10. Fougasse a l’huile d’olive or la pompe, a flat loaf of bread
11. Quince cheese or crystallized fruit (Provence is famous for gorgeous, whole, glaceed fruits)
12. Oreilletes (light, thin waffles)
13. Fortified Wine, representing Jesus himself.
Some lists also include grape or fig jelly enriched with autumn fruit.
Properly, one taste the first 12, makes a wish, and only then may one drink the wine. The wish will come true during the coming year.
Now, why is all this relevant on December 26th? Because the desserts remain on the table through the evening of the 27th!
It’s not too late! Enjoy and Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noel!)