FEAST DAY COOKBOOK by KATHERINE BURTON & HELMUT RIPPERGER David McKay Company, Inc., New York Copyright, 1951 by Katherine Burton and Helmut Ripperger All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. Designed by ALANSON HEWES CONTENTS Introduction JANUARY 1 New Year's Day 2 Feast of Saint Macarius Handsel Monday 6 Epiphany or Twelfth Day 15 Feast of Saint Paul the Hermit 21 Feast of Saint Agnes FEBRUARY 1 Feast of Saint Bridget 2 Candlemas Day or Feast of the Purification 3 Feast of Saint Blaise Pre-Lenten Festivals Collop Monday Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday 14 Feast of Saint Valentine MARCH 1 Feast of Saint David 17 Feast of Saint Patrick 19 Feast of Saint Joseph 21 Feast of Saint Benedict 25 Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Laetare or Mothering Sunday Passion Sunday, also called Carling Sunday Palm Sunday Maundy Thursday Good Friday APRIL 1 Feast of Saint Hugh of Grenoble Holy Saturday Easter Sunday--Feast of the Resurrection 23 Feast of Saint George 25 Feast of Saint Mark 30 Saint Walburga's Eve MAY 1 May Day Ascension Thursday 19 Feast of Saint Ives Pentecost or Whitsunday JUNE 8 Feast of Saint Medard 9 Feast of Saint Columba 13 Feast of Saint Anthony 24 Feast of Saint John the Baptist 29 Feast of Saint Peter JULY 4 Independence Day 15 Saint Swithin's Day 16 Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel 25 Feast of Saint James the Apostle 26 Feast of Saint Anne 29 Feast of Saint Martha AUGUST 1 Lammas Day--Feast of Saint Peter in Chains 6 Feast of the Transfiguration 10 Feast of Saint Lawrence 15 Assumption Day 16 Feast of Saint Roch 20 Feast of Saint Stephen of Hungary 24 Saint Bartholomew's Day 25 Feast of Saint Louis of France SEPTEMBER 1 Feast of Saint Giles 24 Schwenkfelder Thanksgiving 29 Michaelmas Day OCTOBER 4 Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi 25 Feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian 28 Feast of Saints Simon and Jude 31 All Hallows' Eve NOVEMBER 1 All Saints' Day 2 All Souls' Day 3 Feast of Saint Hubert 11 Feast of Saint Martin of Tours 23 Feast of Saint Clement Thanksgiving Day 30 Feast of Saint Andrew DECEMBER 6 Feast of Saint Nicholas 7 Feast of Saint Ambrose 24 Christmas Eve 25 Christmas Day 31 New Year's Eve Table of Movable Feasts Sources Index of Names and Places Index of Food and Recipes INTRODUCTION THE CELEBRATIONS surrounding festival days are a definite part of our Christian tradition. "We have received these days by tradition from our forefathers," says Saint Augustine, "and we transmit them to those that follow to be celebrated with like devotion." Saint Augustine refers, of course, mainly to the religious observance of feast days, but the custom of gathering together for a meal after the ceremonies and the processions, the prayers and the devotions, of offering thanksgiving for divine favors and sharing the warmth of home and hearth in the name of God is in the ancient and honorable usage of centuries. It would be impossible to find a land where there is no such celebration of holy days, where families and friends do not gather to honor events in the life of Our Lord, such as His birth at Christmas or His Resurrection at Easter, or feasts of the Blessed Virgin or the saints in heaven. And in many countries the homeless and the stranger are bidden to the holiday board, or a portion of food is set aside for the poor and the needy, later to be taken to them. The meals prepared in every land on these occasions include traditional dishes, made from recipes handed down for generations, and sometimes the entire meal is prescribed by custom, often its least detail being symbolic in meaning. For example, in Poland the Christmas Eve meal or "Wigilia" is strictly ordered--in setting, in number of courses and dishes, and in the kinds and mixtures of food. The same is true of the Polish Easter "Swiecone," or Blessed Meal; and similar customs prevail on these days in other Slavic countries. In France we have the traditional "Reveillon after Midnight Mass on Christmas, and in Italy the "Cenone," or Christmas Eve supper. Again, the food for a festal day or season may be very simple. There are traditions concerning fasting as well as feasting, and for certain days only one time-honored or appropriate dish is known. It is interesting to note how many of the recipes for special occasions have to do with bread and cakes. This comes from the universal reverence for bread as the basic food of mankind. For example in Hungary, the sign of the Cross is made over the loaf of newly baked bread before it is touched, and all members of the household stand as the first piece is cut by the head of the family. Should a bit of bread drop to the floor and someone step upon it, that person must pick it up and kiss it. Breads and cakes and cookies--the Russian Easter "Koulich," the Good Friday Hot Cross Bun of England, the Christmas "Lebkuchen" of Germany, the Shrove Tuesday pancakes and doughnuts of many countries--their recipes are legion. We have included many of these, but there are hundreds of others which space does not permit, so many in fact that one large volume could be devoted to them alone. It must be borne in mind that some Christian festival observances spring from former pagan feasts, for which the primitive Church found a counterpart to draw the people from other allegiances to its own. Pagan feasts in honor of the earth, the coming of spring, the reaping of the harvest, were given a Christian connotation; the ancient fire and water worship of pagan times became the blessing of water and the lighting of fires in Christian worship. Even the old names have often remained in certain languages: in English the word Easter is from the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Oestre, and Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word "Lencten," meaning spring. Once the goddess Flora was honored in May; today for Christians this is the month of the Blessed Virgin. Easter eggs and Christmas trees go far back into antiquity--the tree perhaps to Druid days, the colored eggs to ancient Persia and Egypt. The barbaric and cruel practices that marked many of the pagan observances have gone, but some superstitious elements remain, and in many countries have been added to by folklore and customs of peasant and local origin. Because of their intrinsic interest we have noted many of these local customs in reference to diversions and food. We have included too some almost forgotten Christian feast days once of great importance, as Michaelmas, Martinmas, and Lammas Day. Then also we have given dishes traditional to the feasts of, or suggested by incidents in the lives of the saints, as well as well-known national dishes of a country, eaten on its patronal feast, as Saint George's Day in England, Saint Andrew's in Scotland, Saint David's in Wales. The reader will note that we have even permitted ourselves an occasional pleasantry, such as Fruit Cobbler on the feast of the patron of shoemakers, or Lost Bread on the feast of Saint Anthony. We assure him that our aim was not to shock but to divert. With the exception of the American Independence Day and Thanksgiving, we have treated only the feast days of the Church. Many of these have been omitted either because they did not lend themselves to traditions in the matter of food, or because any such collection as this must necessarily stop somewhere. We are ourselves most keenly aware of its limitations and many omissions. Perhaps we should add that we are also aware the liturgical year begins with Advent, but that for the convenience of all we have followed the usual calendar, beginning with January 1st. And as some may question our placing of a movable feast, such as Whitsunday, Shrove Tuesday, or Easter, in a given month, we may explain that we have listed these only approximately where they occur and have included a Table of Movable Feasts at the end of this book so that the reader may find the exact dates of these feasts for a good many years to come. It may also be well to add a reminder that the feasts of the Eastern Orthodox Church follow the Julian calendar and not our own, the Gregorian. Thus when we speak in our book of the Russian Easter on the same date as that celebrated in the West, we refer to the celebration rather than to the date. In some countries today the observance of Christian feasts is forbidden. We remember that it has been forbidden before, as the Puritans once forbade in our own country the celebration of Christmas. The feast days flourish again as time passes; the roots are alive; the plants will bud and bloom once more. Therefore we do not speak of these customs as in the past, but merely as temporarily interrupted-- perhaps not always entirely interrupted. Did our newspapers not carry but recently the account of crowds in Russia flocking into churches and cathedrals, bringing their Easter food to be blessed?... And now, a word about the recipes themselves. They have been gathered from the four corners of the earth and, in point of time, several go back to the biblical era, while others range through the centuries down to modern times. We have not attempted to standardize them in any way, preferring to keep the flavor of their original compilation. However, as given here, all of them are practical and adapted to present day cookery. A possible exception is Scripture Cake, but even this can be successfully made by anyone having a practical knowledge of baking. And finally, these recipes can be used not only for feast days, but for every day. Recalling that seventeen hundred years ago, the Greek author Athenaeus wrote, "A change of meat is often good, and those who are wearied of common food take new pleasure in a novel meal," we offer them as a refreshing change from routine meals and for the delectation as well as interest of both cook and diner. It is always a pleasant task to acknowledge indebtedness for favors and inspiration received. Obviously the authors of this book cannot single out each and every one who has shown interest in its preparation by giving practical and helpful aid and advice. A selected check list of reference material for further reading will be found at the end of the book, in which we acknowledge many of the sources of our information. However, we do wish to express our particular gratitude to Mrs. F. Dodd McHugh and the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Torresdale, Pennsylvania, for information on Polish feast day customs and recipes; to Dr. Lili Gonde for data included in the French sections of the book; and to the Reverend Claiborne Lafferty of the North American College in Rome for a useful list of Italian festival dishes; to Mrs. Marian Tracy, and to the Bronxville Public Library. And a lion's share of appreciation and thanks should go to the New York Public Library. It would be simple to set down the names of the various heads of departments who have given so generously of their time, but we feel that to do so adequately and fairly, we should rightly commence the list with the names of the Messers Astor, Lenox, and Tilden. However, we feel that the "heads" have often been given their due praise in print in the past. We would like to thank here the hundreds who through the years have prepared the millions of cards that make up the general catalogue of the Library; the patient attendants who took and safely forwarded the many call slips we made out day after day in the course of our research; the unseen and unknown (to us, at least) workers in the underground stacks, who found the books we asked for; and, finally, the pages who so swiftly sought us out and brought the needed treasures to us. August 10. 1951 K. B. H. R. January 1: New Year's Day FAR BACK in time goes the celebration of the first day of the New Year, back to the time of the Druids, when priests brought from the sacred wood mistletoe boughs to distribute to the people. In ancient Rome sacrifices were offered to Janus, the god for whom the month was named--a god with two faces, looking both into the past and into the future. Presents were exchanged on this day, and in time these became very elaborate indeed. Christian emperors allowed the pleasant custom to continue, but so many idolatrous rites remained attached to the celebration that at last the Church prohibited its members from observing it in any way. Then when, some centuries later December 25th was fixed upon as the day of the Nativity of Christ, the first of January became a Christian feast day in honor of the Circumcision of Our Lord. But secular customs in connection with the beginning of the New Year continued to overshadow in many places the religious observance of the feast, and much revelry was connected with it. The Middle Ages eagerly seized upon any event that afforded a reasonable excuse for a banquet or feasting--coronations, great victories, and Church festivals. When on "Newyere Daie" in medieval England the country folk after copious repasts drank each other's health in cups of wassail, they afterwards went out to the orchards and "wassailed the trees." Wassail Bowl nutmeg 4 glasses sherry ginger root 3 slices lemon 1 lb. sugar 4 slices toast 3 qts. warm beer Grate a little nutmeg and some ginger root over one pound of sugar and add one quart of the beer. Add the sherry and the lemon slices and finally the rest of the beer. Stir, taste, and add more sugar if necessary. Serve in a bowl and float the toast on top. In England the celebration has always been elaborate and various cakes were made especially for this day. First among them came the seed cake, but the "god cakes" of Coventry were also very popular. These last were of all sizes, some so small they sold for a penny and some so large they sold for a pound, and they were not really cakes at all, but a sort of tart with a filling and cut in a triangle. At St. Albans cakes were made in the form of a woman and were called locally "pope ladies," but neither legend nor history tell why. God Cakes 1/4 cup butter 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon allspice 3/4 cup currants puff paste or pie dough 1/3 cup lemon peel Mix the butter and sugar thoroughly, and add the currants, lemon peel, and spices. Heat in a double boiler for a few minutes and then allow the filling to cool before using. Make a puff paste (or use your richest pie dough) and roll out 1/4 inch thick and cut into 3-inch squares. Place a teaspoon of the filling in one corner of each square. Moisten the edges of the pastry and fold over from corner to corner to make a triangle; seal the edges with a fork. Bake at 450 degrees F. for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees F. and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until brown. We read that on this day Queen Elizabeth collected many gifts, a royal custom which sometimes was hard on her subjects, for each strove to outdo the other to win her favor, and she collected such rich offerings as caskets studded with jewels, bracelets, and mantles. But she received simpler gifts as well. There is a record of a box of foreign sweetmeats given her by her physician, ginger candy and lozenges from her apothecary, a box of green ginger from a friend, and "Mrs. Morgan brought a box of cherries and one of apricocks." The lesser folk in Elizabeth's reign received gifts of gilt nutmegs and pomanders--an apple or an orange--"stikt round about with cloaves." These ingenious affairs were often hung in milady's room and sometimes put inside wine vessels to preserve wine from "foystiness." The name pomander was originally applied to a small case of silver which contained various aromatic scents. Here is a good way to make a pomander in our day. Pomander Take a small, thin-skinned orange and stick whole cloves into it until the surface is entirely studded. Roll the orange in powdered orrisroot and powdered cinnamon, patting on as much as you can. Wrap in tissue paper and put it away for several weeks. Remove the paper, shake off the surplus powder, and the pomander is ready for use. It can be hung up by a ribbon in a closet where it will retain its fragrance and aroma for years. In France the "Nouvel An" has always been a day when gifts are exchanged rather than on Christmas Day, and at family parties children and grown folk exchange "etrennes." In Italy, although the children are given their toys at Epiphany, adults receive their presents at the "Capo d'Anno." In the United States New Year's Day has come to mean open house, a day when people pay calls to wish each other joy in the days to come and good fortune for the whole year. In many minds the beverage associated with the day has become fixed, and eggnog is its name. It is, for some, a very heavy drink--imbibing one is possible but two may well prove overwhelming. However, there are beverages for New Year's Day that hail from other lands and which surely would please one's guests. There is, for example, the Swedish Glogg. Glogg 1/3 cup almonds 2 bottles sherry 1 cup raisins 2 bottles port 10 whole cloves 1 cup lump sugar 10 cardamons 1 bottle cognac 6 pieces stick cinnamon A week before you wish to use your glogg, place the almonds (blanched and shredded), the raisins, the cloves, whole cardamons, and the stick cinnamon in a saucepan with enough wine to cover. Place over low heat and bring to just the boiling point. Place in a jar and keep in a cool place. To make your glogg, add the rest of the wine to the spiced foundation and heat it in an attractive kettle, chafing dish, or "brulot" bowl. Bring to the boiling point but do not allow it to boil. In a sieve placed over the kettle or bowl, put your lump sugar and slowly pour the bottle of cognac over it, and set it aflame with a match. When the sugar has melted through, the glogg is ready. It should be served hot. With this one might well serve a modern version of the English seed cake. Seed Cake 1 cup butter 1/4 teaspoon salt 5 egg yolks 3/4 cup milk 1-1/2 cups sugar 2 teaspoons caraway seeds 3 egg whites 1 teaspoon vanilla 3 cups pastry flour 3 teaspoons baking powder Beat the butter until creamy and add the egg yolks and sugar, beating thoroughly. Stir in the egg whites and mix briskly. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt and add to the mixture, alternating with the milk. Beat well; add caraway seeds and vanilla. Pour into a well-greased tube pan and bake at 350 degrees F. for an hour and fifteen minutes. An early American recipe says, "Wash the butter in rose water, drean out the water and add a few drops of oyl of sinnamont." And here is a cake which could well be made for the New Year, for it is good to eat and also good to consider, especially in these days when the Bible is not so much read as it once was. No doubt many an early American would not have had to look up these references, but for many today it may serve the double purpose of supplying gustatory and religious information. Scripture Cake (1) Four and one half cups of III Kings, iv, 22; (2) one and one half cups of Judges v, 25; (3) two cups of Jeremias vi, 20; (4) two cups of I Kings, xxx, 12; (5) two cups of Nahum iii, 12; (6) one cup of Numbers xvii, 8; (7) two tablespoons of I Kings, xiv, 25; (8) six articles of Jeremias xvii, 11; (9) a pinch of Leviticus ii, 13; (10) a teaspoon of Amos iv, 5; (11) season to taste with II Paralipomenon, ix, 9; (12) add citron and follow Solomon's advice for making a good boy, Proverbs xxiii, 14, and you will have a good cake. (Douay Bible.) There are of course households in which the New Year's family reunion and dinner menu are traditional and inviolable. But for those open to suggestion, we offer a dinner built about a central dish of suckling pig, the standard New Year's roast in many European countries. Usually a bright red apple or an orange is put in the pig's snout, although the Hungarian custom is to put in a four leaf clover. Around the pig's pate is often placed a wreath of bay leaves. Roast Suckling Pig Clean the pig carefully. Insert a piece of wood into its mouth to keep it open while roasting. Sage and onion dressing is traditional, but you might use a prune-apple stuffing or a sausage stuffing. Stuff your pig, truss and skewer it. Make 4 parallel slits about 3 inches long on each side of the backbone. Place on a rack, sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper, brush with melted butter, and dust with flour. Roast for fifteen minutes at 480 degrees F.; then reduce heat to 350 degrees F. and continue roasting, allowing thirty minutes to the pound. If you wish to have the skin soft, baste every fifteen minutes with hot stock; if crisp (and it's better that way), baste with melted butter. When the roast is ready, remove to a hot serving platter. Remove the piece of wood from the mouth, replace with a bright red apple and insert cranberries for eyes. Finally crown with a wreath of bay leaves. The ears and tail have a tendency to burn, so wrap them carefully in buttered paper which should be removed during the last half hour of roasting. The European side dishes which accompany the New Year's suckling pig are usually heavy and a bit complicated. We would suggest fluffy mashed potatoes covered with finely chopped onions slightly browned in butter, a dish of Brussels sprouts surrounded with braised chestnuts, and a sharp green salad. The dessert might well be an Apple Florentine which hails from seventeenth-century England. According to the old recipe, this was a deep-dish apple pie baked in a huge pewter or Sheffield plate, filled with "good baking apples, sugar and lemon to the very brim." When baked and before serving, the rich crust was taken off and cut into triangular pieces ready to be replaced, but before this was done a full quart of well-spiced ale, "quite hissing hot," was poured over the apples. We might follow the same instructions but substitute hot cider for the ale. January 2: Feast of Saint Macarius In the fourth century when the desert in Egypt sheltered many hermits, happy in their austere lives and their separation from the world, one of the most famous was Macarius the Younger. We are told he was of joyful countenance and, like Saint Francis of Assisi later, he was the friend of birds and animals. One of the most charming of the stories concerning him relates that one day a hyena came to lay before him her blind cub, just born. The saint restored the sight of the young animal, and the next day the grateful mother returned to him carrying in her mouth a fine sheepskin. Of this Macarius made a garment which he wore until he died. Macarius' fame spread far and wide because of his piety and spiritual knowledge, and many sought him in his desert abode for advice and guidance. He did not become a hermit until the middle of his life. He had been a sugarplum merchant, and that is why he became the patron of pastry cooks and confectioners. His own product, sugarplums, a term once used only for candied fruits, is today a synonym for sweets of any kind. Sugarplums 2 lbs. confectionery sugar 1 lb. any fruit water Cover sugar with enough water to dissolve, and let boil to a syrup. Place fruit in a pan and pour syrup over it. Turn fruit lightly by shaking pan until all parts are coated. Set to cool, and when this is done pour off syrup and set pan on its side so that the liquid may be well drained off. Should be prepared two days in advance so that glaze will form. In our day sugarplums are more apt to be replaced by glaceed fruits. Glaceed Fruits 2 cups sugar 2/3 cup water 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar Mix sugar, water, and cream of tartar in a small saucepan. Stir until the sugar is dissolved; then cook to 310 degrees F.--crack stage--without stirring. Remove the syrup from the fire to check boiling and place the saucepan in another pan of hot water. Begin dipping into the syrup at once, using pieces of canned pineapple, canned cherries, figs, grapes, dates, pitted prunes. Nut meats may be glaceed in the same fashion. If the candies are dropped on tin, they will not stick. First Monday In January: Handsel Monday The Scotch prefer to celebrate the New Year on the first Monday in January. This day is known in that country as Handsel Monday, a word derived from an Anglo-Saxon phrase meaning a gift given by hand. Especially among rural workers it is a popular holiday. The farmers give them on that morning a huge breakfast of meats both roasted and boiled, with ale and whiskey to wash it down, and a fine cake to follow. Shortbread invariably appears on the table. No work is done on that day, but everyone goes visiting friends after the meal, partly no doubt to show a holiday spirit but doubtless also to work off the heaviness that follows so unusual an intake of food. Scotch Shortbread 1 cup butter 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 cup confectionery sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups flour Beat the butter until soft and gradually add the sugar. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together and work into the butter mixture with the hands. A tablespoon of vanilla or some freshly ground nutmeg may also be added. Knead the dough well until no cracks appear. Roll it out to the thickness of 1/4 inch and cut into squares or any desired shape. Bake on a greased sheet at 375 degrees F. for about twenty minutes. January 6: Epiphany or Twelfth Day Early in January comes a feast celebrated everywhere and variously throughout the Christian world--Epiphany, from the Greek word "Theophania," meaning the showing forth of God. Because in the West this signified the manifestation of Christ through the Magi after His birth, it is known as the Day of Kings, and it is also commonly called Twelfth Day, since Epiphany occurs that many days after Christmas. In the East the manifestation of Christ was connected with His baptism in the Jordan and with baptism in general. From the lighted candle held at baptism, it receives another name the Feast of Lights. The Greek Orthodox hold at Epiphany a ceremony known as the Blessing of the Waters, at which water is blessed and carried home by the worshippers to be placed close to the familiar icons. In the United States this annual ceremony is in some places carried out even more splendidly than in Greece. In New York the Orthodox Metropolitan carries a gold crucifix to the harbor, throws it into the water in the presence of his congregation, and then several divers leap in, each striving to be the first to recover it. Epiphany Eve is the setting of a tender legend. It is said that the Wise Men on their way to Bethlehem passed an old woman busily cleaning her house. When she learned where they were going, she asked them to wait until she had finished her work so she could go with them. But the Kings said they could not wait; they told her to follow them when she was ready and catch up with them. As she was a careful housekeeper and also took time to prepare a gift to take to the Child, when she finally started on her way, the others were so far ahead that she never found them. Ever since she wanders through the world, seeking the Child so that she may give Him her gift. In Italy, as Befana--a corruption of Epiphany--she leaves gifts at the houses she visits in the hope of finding the Child she seeks. A time-honored Epiphany dainty in Italy is "Cappelletti all' uso di Romagna." Cappelletti all' uso di Romagna (Little Hats in the Manner of the Romans) 1/4 lb. boiled chicken 1 egg 1/4 lb. roast veal 1/4 lb. cottage cheese 3 slices prosciutto (Italian ham) grated lemon peel 1 cup flour nutmeg, allspice, salt Grind the meat very fine. It is preferable to use prosciutto but ordinary plain ham may be used. Make a highly seasoned mixture with all the other ingredients. The ground meat may be sauteed in a little butter before being added. Make a paste of 1 cup flour and 1 egg (add an extra egg white if you have it): Put the flour on a board, make a hole in the middle and break in the egg. Work it with a fork until it is firm enough to work with the hands. Knead it thoroughly, adding more flour if necessary, until the paste can be rolled out. Roll as thin as possible and cut into rounds about 3 inches in diameter. Place a spoonful of filling in the middle of each circle of paste, moisten the edges of the paste with finger dipped in water to seal it securely, and fold into little cones or hats. These "cappelletti" should be cooked in chicken broth for about twenty minutes. Usually they are served with the soup, but sometimes they are served separately with "Mostarda di Cremona." The Italians say of it, "this is a mustard which is not," for it is made of pieces of fruit, mustard, and spices. In some lands long ago, children set out to meet the three Kings with cakes and figs, and hay for the camels; in our day in some countries they still take their gifts to the church and lay them before the altar rail. One charming story goes like this: When Mary heard the tramping feet of the camels, she picked her baby up and held him close, fearing that someone had come to take him from her. And so the Wise Men found them exactly as they had been foretold. When they went home again, the story continues, they resigned their high offices and estates and went forth to teach the gospel of the Prince of Peace; and years afterward Saint Thomas found them in India, baptized them and ordained them priests. Later they were martyred, and the Empress Helena is said to have found their bones and enshrined them in the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Constantinople. During the crusades these relics were taken to Milan and later to Cologne where today they are to be found in the cathedral of that city in a chest of gold incrusted with jewels. The article of food which comes first to mind for this feast is the famous Twelfth Day cake, baked and eaten in many lands. In France the "Galette des Rois" is cut carefully so that there will be one more piece than there are guests at the table. This, called "la part de Dieu," goes to the first poor person who comes to the door. In Greece this is a double feast day for it is also that of Saint Basil, and the first piece of cake is cut for Christ, the next for Our Lady, and the third for Saint Basil. When the cake is not divided according to purely religious custom, it is often considered a cake of luck. A bean is hidden in the cake, among other fortune-telling trinkets, and whoever finds this is crowned king or queen of the feast. France, in fact, has a proverb which comes directly from this finding of the lucky bean: "Il a trouve la feve au gateau." On the eve of the feast in Austrian homes, a blessing is invoked on the house and on each room individually. One of the family, carrying a shovel filled with coals and incense, goes from room to room followed by all the rest. When every room has been blessed, the household marches to the barn to bless the home of the animals too. And on that night the Christmas tree is lighted for the last time. At Drury Lane Theatre in London a custom prevailed called "cutting the Baddeley Cake." A comedian of that name left the provision in his will that on each Twelfth Night the performers at the theater be served cake and wine from the interest of a fund he bequeathed for that purpose. So each year the cake was cut with great ceremony on the stage. And it is also from England that we have the best recipe for a Twelfth Day Cake. Twelfth Day Cake 1 cup butter 4 tablespoons citron 3/4 cup sugar 4 tablespoons orange peel 3 eggs 4 tablespoons shredded 1/4 cup milk almonds 3 cups flour 1/4 teaspoon allspice 3/4 cup currants 1 teaspoon cinnamon 3/4 cup sultanas Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and beat after each addition. Add the milk and beat all thoroughly. Mix a little of the flour with the various raisins and peels. Sift the flour with the spices and fold into the mixture. Finally add the fruits and almonds. Bake in a pan lined with waxed paper for two hours in a slow oven at 250 degrees F. Formerly this cake was baked two or three months before it was to be used, then it was covered with almond paste and a thin white icing. Traditionally Lamb's Wool was always served with Twelfth Day Cake. Lamb's Wool Add the pulp of 6 baked apples to 1 quart of strong hot ale, together with a small quantity of freshly ground nutmeg and some powdered ginger. Add granulated sugar to sweeten to taste. The mixture must be stirred "assiduously and let it be served hot." January 15: Feast of Saint Paul the Hermit Of the many men who during the early Christian centuries fled to live in the desert, Saint Paul the Hermit was the earliest. We have this on the testimony of none other than Saint Anthony who came there thinking that he himself was the first. Then, as "The Golden Legend" of Jacobus de Voragine tells the story, "he learned in a dream that another anchorite, better than himself, had a claim to this homage. Therefore, Saint Anthony bent every effort to discover the whereabouts of this other hermit. And searching through the forests, he came first upon a hippocentaurus, half man and half horse, who told him to go to the right. Next he met an animal who was carrying some dates; the upper part of his body was that of a man, but he had the belly and feet of a goat. Anthony asked him what he was; and he answered that he was a satyr, that is, one of those creatures which the pagans mistook for wood-gods. Finally Saint Anthony came face to face with a wolf, who led him to the cell where Saint Paul dwelt. But he, being aware of the approach of a man, had closed his door. Anthony besought him to open to him, declaring that he would die on the spot rather than go away. And Paul, yielding to his prayers, opened the door, and at once the two hermits embraced each other with great affection. "When the noon-hour drew near, a crow flew down, bearing a loaf formed of two halves. Anthony wondered at this, but Paul told him that God provided him daily with food in this manner; this day the quantity was doubled, on account of Anthony's visit. Thereupon they disputed piously over which of them was more worthy to divide the loaf. Paul wished that Anthony should do it, since he was the guest. Anthony insisted that it be Paul, who was the older. In the end both took hold of the loaf, and broke it in two." De Voragine does not go on to state the nature of the loaf, but we like to think of it as one of the simplest and best of whole wheat loaves. Whole Wheat Bread 1/2 cake yeast 3 cups whole wheat flour 1 cup white flour (No shortening, sugar, or milk) Moisten the yeast with a little tepid water and allow it to stand for ten minutes. Add it to the flour and enough tepid water, together with a pinch of salt, to make a good dough. Let it stand until it doubles in bulk. Then punch it down, knead again, and put it into small bread pans. When it rises again to double its bulk, bake in a moderate oven at 350 degrees F. for a full hour or more. Slice very thin. January 21: Feast of Saint Agnes Saint Agnes' day is the feast of a saint about whom there are many legends, although little is known historically save that she was very young and a martyr. On her feast day lambs are blessed in Rome, and from their wool is woven material for the pallia which the popes send to a new archbishop. In some countries Saint Agnes is the saint of maidens, especially those who are looking for husbands. The eve of her feast is considered an auspicious time to find out who will be one's future mate, and there are several old-time ways said to achieve this. In England a girl took sprigs of thyme and of rosemary, sprinkled them three times with water, put one on each side of her bed, and then recited: Saint Agnes, who's to lovers kind Come ease the trouble of my mind. In her dreams then she saw the face of her future husband. Sometimes a maid ate instead a salt-filled egg from which the yolk had been removed. In that case her future husband came to her in her dreams and offered her water. In certain parts of England, young women made cakes of flour, salt, and water (surely a fasting rather than a feasting dish), which were called "dumb cakes" because without saying a word the young woman would go upstairs with one of these cakes-- backwards, to make it harder--get into bed, eat her cake, and pray fervently to Saint Agnes. There seems to be no record of disappointments, and we trust that all of those to whom Saint Agnes showed the dream face of her future got her man. Nor is there any record of how these cakes were made. FEBRUARY February 1: Feast of Saint Bridget FEBRUARY is the shortest of months, one with few feasts, and usually beginning the year's greatest fast, Lent. The name's origin is from Februarius, the Roman feast of purification, but it is still a fitting name for this most Christian season. The first feast in February is that of Saint Bridget, known lovingly in her own land as "Mary of the Gael." According to the scholars the name is rightly Brigit, but the common spelling is Bridget, and hers is the name borne by more girls in Ireland than any save one, that of Mary. In many legends she is associated with Saint Patrick, who is said to have baptized her and who had her help in converting Ireland; when he died it was she who stitched his shroud. Born about 450, she founded the nunnery of Kildare, the first on Irish soil. In Celtic lands the dandelion is called "Saint Brigit's flame," so every time you see this flower think of that bright flame of faith, Saint Bridget, who carried on the work of Saint Patrick and whose watchword was "mercy." In the hearts of the Irish, Bridget stands for all that is sweetest and best and most human in women. An old story tells that she was born of a slave mother and taken from her at birth, but when she was older she set out to rejoin the lonely old woman and found her "at a mountain dairy having twelve cows with her, and she collecting butter." This legend doubtless explains why Bridget is considered the protectress of dairy workers and also this verse of "The Prayer of Saint Brigit": O my Prince of Heaven! Bless a prayer unbidden--O pure Whiteness Bless a kitchen that hath butter! It is told that "everything Bridget put her hand to increased and grew beautiful," and in old stories she is shown feeding her hungry hounds with the table meat and brewing ale for the churches. Baskets filled with apples and fragrant bread are "Brigit alms," and it is said she left to her countrywomen her gift of simple healing--for most Irish women have some elementary knowledge of medicine and herbal remedies. Bridget is well known not only in Irish households but also in English, for she was a favorite saint in the Britain of an early day. In London an ancient well, named Saint Bride's Well in her honor, lent its name to the nearby Brideswell Palace which Edward VI turned into a workhouse for the poor in later years. On her feast special cakes were served with ale, called "Barinbreac," and sometimes "Barmbrack" or "Barnbreak." Barinbreac 4 oz. butter 2 tablespoons currants 1-1/2 lbs. flour 1 tablespoon caraway 2 teaspoons baking seeds soda sugar buttermilk Rub the butter into the flour which has been sifted with the soda. Add the currants and the caraway seeds and a very little sugar. Add sufficient buttermilk to make a wet dough- -one that will drop into the pan. Bake at 300 degrees F. for two hours. Irish women are in general great makers of delectable cakes and breads for special occasions--of ash cakes (little scones rolled in cabbage leaves) baked in the ashes on the hearth and when done sopped in rasher gravy; of tea scones made with golden meal and baked on the griddle, delicious eaten with jelly or jam; of white bread and brown, Indian meal and bran loaves; of seedy cakes and Sunday cakes. They were also adept at making the jellies and jams that fill the odd places on a well-set Irish table--sloe jelly, rowanberry jelly, haw-and-apple jelly, damson preserves and blackberry jam, to mention but a few. And since the daughters of Saint Bridget are great believers in natural remedies, they are apt to insist that the children eat Parsley Jelly Take 3 bunches of parsley and set to boil with sufficient water to cover. Boil for about twenty-five minutes and strain through a jelly bag. Return the strained liquid to the fire and simmer for an additional ten minutes. Measure your juice and allow 1 pound of sugar for each 2 cups of liquid, boil together until jelly sets or drops from the spoon. Peel 1 lemon thinly, tie in a bit of cheesecloth, and add during last ten minutes of cooking. Pour into hot, sterilized jars and cover with paraffin. February 2: Candlemas Day or Feast of the Purification The feast which falls on this day is known both as Candlemas and the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. It was begun in order to counteract the pagan observances of ancient Rome at that season, when the whole city was lighted with candles and torches in honor of the Roman goddess Februa. It was likewise the month dedicated to the gods of the underworld, and candles also represented Ceres who was trying to find her daughter Proserpina, stolen from her by Pluto and carried by him to the lower world. At first a pagan religious celebration, it grew into an occasion of mere merrymaking and night-long revels, and at last Sergius, one of the early popes, changed the festival into a Christian feast in honor of the purification of the Virgin Mary. On that day candles for the year are blessed in Christian churches and lighted ones carried in procession. It is very natural that long ago in England it received its name of Candle Mass. To Christians the candles are symbolic of Christ, the light of the world, and of Simeon's reference to the Child brought by Our Lady to the Temple as "a light to the revelation of the Gentiles." The candles blessed on this day are in many places given to the faithful, and carefully kept for use in time of need, as during childbirth and at the hour of death. In England in olden times there was a belief that if Christmas greens were left up longer than this day, as many goblins would appear and trouble the house as there were leaves or branches remaining. One would think that all Christmas decorations would have been disposed of by this time, but perhaps sentimental souls left theirs hanging long beyond the classic day for taking them down-the day after Epiphany. One can sympathize, for it is much more pleasant to put up a symbol of joy than to remove it. No doubt this superstition was created to make such soft souls face duty and put down lingering regret. In some parts of Mexico on this day godparents entertain a group of guests, and in other places the party is given by the guest who found the little replica of the Christ Child in his slice of the "Rosca de Reyes," which is none other than our old friend the "Galette des Rois," the Twelfth Day Cake. February 3: Feast of Saint Blaise Saint Blaise, who is invoked against diseases of the throat, was a bishop of an early century who was driven to the mountains by persecution and took refuge in a cave infested with wild beasts. But Saint Blaise so subdued them that each morning they came to him to ask his blessing. After a period of peace he was discovered, dragged before the prefect, and condemned to imprisonment and eventual death. But even while a captive he healed a child choking to death from a fishbone and made a wolf give back to a poor woman the pig it was stealing from her. He is a much beloved saint and always willing to help those in trouble. In the Middle Ages it was a common thing to "call upon God and remember Saint Blaise." On his feast day the heads of households among the Basques of the Pyrenees bring to the church garlic, salt, apples, and chocolates for Saint Blaise's blessing, and later give these to their children and their animals for protection against throat ailments. Of their own throats, the adults take less care, for the great Basque festival dish is "loukinkas," a regional sausage highly seasoned with peppers. These sausages are served with fresh raw oysters, and the height of gastronomic delight is to eat a loukinkas and follow it with a cool fresh oyster to take away the burning sensation. Pre-Lenten Festivals Unless Easter is very late indeed, the beginning of Lent falls in February. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the full moon which occurs on or next after March 21st; it therefore always falls on some date between March 22nd and April 25th inclusive. In various countries there are customs for these days which have survived the centuries and are still lovingly observed. And nearly always there is some special dish that is prepared during this time. In Poland high feasting takes place on the Thursday before Lent, and the day's specialty is "Piczki," rich fried doughnuts. In Syria the Thursday before Lent is known as Drunkard's Thursday because eating and drinking reach top form on that day. A sheep is slaughtered and roasted and served with rice-stuffed grape leaves and figs stewed in molasses. Dolmas (Stuffed Grape Leaves) grape leaves 2 cloves garlic 1/2 cup rice 1 tablespoon parsley 1/2 cup chick-peas salt 1 onion pepper Blanch the grape leaves in boiling water for about five minutes. Combine the rice with the chick-peas (either canned or cooked), the minced onion, garlic, parsley, and seasoning. Place a tablespoon of this mixture on each leaf, roll up and press together with your hand. Cook them for about thirty minutes with enough water to cover, or some tomato juice seasoned liberally with lemon. They may be eaten hot or cold. If you have no grape leaves, cabbage leaves (remove the spine) or even lettuce leaves may be used. On the Friday before Lent, in Ponti in Italy the people of the town celebrate the feast of "Polentone" when an enormous dish of "polenta", weighing more than a thousand pounds, is prepared and with it an omelet said to contain six thousand eggs, put together by the best cooks in town. We should like to see with our own eyes an omelet of six thousands eggs being turned over, since turning one made of only six is quite a trick, but no doubt the cooks of Ponti have had experience. These huge dishes are given to the poor. Evidently the cooking is the thing in this case; the eating is secondary to the wonder of constructing the dishes. This recipe makes a quantity considerably smaller than the wonder of Ponti but equally good. Pasticcio di Polenta (Corn Meal Pie) 1 cup yellow corn meal cream butter Parmesan cheese bread crumbs salt handful dried mushrooms In the morning of the day this dish is to be served, cook the corn meal in only enough water to make it very stiff. Turn out to cool in just the shape of the dish in which it was cooked. When preparing the "pasticcio," butter the same dish in which the corn meal was cooked and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Cut the molded corn meal in horizontal strips about 1/4 inch thick. Lay the top slice in the bottom of the dish where it fits. Dot with a little butter and 3 or 4 dried mushrooms which have had boiling water poured over them and have soaked for several hours. Moisten with cream and sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Repeat slice by slice until the shape is complete. Put in a moderate oven at 300 degrees F. and bake for three hours. In Paris, Carnival, as it is called, is limited to the three days preceding Ash Wednesday; on the last day there is a procession of the "Boeuf Gras" through the streets. In Switzerland during these days children receive cakes flavored with caraway seeds. But it is in Denmark that children come into their own during this time. The Monday before Ash Wednesday is a holiday known as "Fastelaven." While their parents are still in bed, the children of the family, armed with twigs called Lenten birches, come into their parents' rooms where the latter are supposedly asleep, but no doubt wide awake and ready to make sure their offspring do not become too violent with the instruments of punishment in their hands. "Give buns," shout the young, and the parents produce for them the "Fastenlavensboller." We take if for granted that parents may then take one more bit of slumber, at least for the time it takes the children to consume their buns. They are toothsome morsels. Fastenlavensboller (Lenten Buns) 1 yeast cake 1/2 teaspoon cardamon 3/4 cup sugar seeds 1-1/2 cups lukewarm milk 3/4 cup butter 3-1/4 cups flour 1/2 cup raisins 1 egg Let the yeast stand with a little sugar in a little lukewarm milk. Sift the flour with the rest of the sugar and the ground cardamom seeds, and stir in the milk and butter which has been melted. Combine with the yeast mixture and raisins, and work until smooth. Let it stand and then knead, roll out fairly thick and cut out buns with a round cutter. Let rise again, brush with beaten egg, and bake in a moderate oven at 375 degrees F. for half an hour. Collop Monday In England the Monday before Lent is known as Collop Monday, so called because it was the last day of eating meat before the fast began. In an earlier day fresh meat was cut into collops, or steaks, for salting or hanging until after Lent was over. It is still customary to have eggs and collops, or eggs and bacon on this day. English Eggs and Bacon Cut strips of bacon in 3-inch lengths, place them in a baking dish, and pour over them 3 tablespoons of cream. Bake in a moderate oven until the bacon is brown on one side, and then turn it over and brown the other. While the bacon is cooking, poach your eggs and serve on the bacon. This could be attractively done in individual ramekins. Italians in many rural areas who celebrate a pre-Lenten "Carnevale" lasting for four weeks before Lent, begin on this Monday the last and gayest days of all. They are called "The Two Days of the Shepherds," and all work is suspended while feasting, dancing, and merrymaking take place in the public squares, ending with a masquerade on the night of Shrove Tuesday. Traditional during these two days of festivity is a dish called "Salsiccia con Peperoni" (sausage with green peppers). Salsiccia con Peperoni (Sausage with Green Peppers) Take 2 to 2-1/2 pounds of Italian sausage and see to it that it remains in one piece. Curl in broiling pan and broil about 5 inches from flame for about half an hour. Saute 4 green peppers and 1 sweet onion, both cut up, in a little olive oil and serve with the sausage which should be well browned by this time. Be sure to prick the sausage once or twice while it is cooking. Shrove Tuesday All other pre-Lenten celebrations pale when one comes to Shrove Tuesday. The name comes, of course, from the practice of confessing one's sins on that day, of being shriven in preparation for the season of penance to come. But in many parts of the world, especially in olden times, people had a great deal else on their minds on Shrove Tuesday, that is, a great deal on the subject of food. The cooks outdid themselves on special dishes, ignoring completely the fact that the way to come to a long fast would be to taper off, as is done with drugs. In pre-Reformation times in English towns the church bell was rung on Shrove Tuesday and came to be known as the "shriving bell." This in time was called the "pancake bell," so closely identified was the day with that article of food. Pancakes and fritters, Say the bells of Saint Peter's, runs the old rhyme about the bells of London. And in an almanac for 1684 we find: Hark I hear the pancake bell And fritters make a gallant smell. But pancakes were by no means all they ate in Merrie England on Shrove Tuesday; they enjoyed hogs, barbecued whole, basted with wine, and stuffed with spicy meals. Yet pancakes were the day's specialty--pancakes of all kinds, thin like modern ones; or fat, rich fritters with fruit cut into them for flavor. Later in England the Puritans looked upon such observances with a jaundiced eye, and an English cookery book of the seventeenth century describes pancakes as made with water, eggs, "spices and magical, tragical enchantments" and of "sweet bait which ignorant people devore very greedily." Even "Crepes Suzettes" would hardly rate such harsh words. But it is clear that the Puritans regarded the pancakes as merely one more popish dish and so came out against it. One feature of the custom should have pleased their economical souls, since the pancakes used up all the fat in the household, as at that time none could be used for the next six weeks. The French eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday too; however, they make them folded, not flat as we do. To them a cold pancake is as good as a hot one, and with these cold pancakes they drink wine. However, "Crepes Suzettes," their most famous and sophisticated version, are not only served hot but flaming. Today in England and the United States the pancake is traditional, and much attention is given to the feat of turning them deftly from side to side. In our country in earlier days, when the mother of the family fried the pancakes, she was watched critically to see how well she could "flap" them--the origin of the word flapjack. Buttermilk Pancakes 4 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon cream of 1/2 teaspoon baking soda tartar 1 tablespoon sugar 4 tablespoons butter pinch of salt buttermilk Sift the dry ingredients and rub in the butter. Add just enough buttermilk so that the batter pours easily, like heavy cream. An egg may be added if desired. Bake on a lightly greased griddle. The Irish Boxty Pancakes are always made with buttermilk, and are eaten hot with butter and sugar as fast as they come from the pan. They are made of grated raw potato, flour, salt, soda, buttermilk, and eggs. And into the ingredients are dropped little charms, wrapped in paper: a ring for the one first to be married, a thimble for an old maid, a button for a bachelor, a cross for the one who would enter religion, and a sixpence for riches. These pancakes are usually served at tea time with a black brew of Irish tea. Some lands scorn the pancake, and in Scotland, perhaps just to be different, people eat Crowdy on Shrove Tuesday. A description of this dish sounds much like the usual fare of the Scots, for it is made by pouring boiling water over oatmeal and stirring it a little. Perhaps the butter and milk that went over it is not for every day. And there is another variation: into the porringer of one unmarried person in the house is put a ring, and whoever finds this in his or her bowl will be the first to be married. In Germany "Fastnachtskuchen," doughnuts and not pancakes, are eaten on the eve of the Lenten fast, and the Pennsylvania Germans in the United States follow this same custom. Here is their recipe: Fastnachtskuchen (Shrove Tuesday Doughnuts) 2 cups milk 1 cup sugar 1 cake yeast 3 eggs 1/2 cup water 1/4 cup lard 6 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt Scald the milk and allow to cool. Dissolve the yeast in the water which should be warm and add 1/2 cup of flour, sifted. Mix thoroughly. Add this to the milk with a little of the sugar. Then add 3 cups of flour, sifted, and let rise, preferably overnight. Beat the eggs well and add with the lard and the rest of the sugar. Mix well. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a stiff dough. Let it rise again. Turn out on a floured pastry board and roll to 1/4- inch thickness. Cut out and let the doughnuts rise to double their bulk. Fry in deep fat at 360 degrees F. for three to four minutes, turning as they fry. Drain on absorbent paper. The Swedes make a rich yeast bun for Shrove Tuesday. After baking, the top of the bun is cut off, the inside scooped out, and the hollow filled with almond paste. The buns are put in soup plates and eaten with hot milk flavored with almonds and vanilla sugar. These have become so popular that Swedish folk serve them every Tuesday all through Lent. These buns are known as "Fet Tisdays Bullar." Filling for Fet Tisdags Bullar (Fat Tuesday Buns) 1 cup blanched almonds 3/4 cup sugar heavy cream Scoop out about two tablespoons from one bun after the top has been cut off and mix with blanched almonds, which have been finely chopped or ground, and the sugar, preferably confectionery sugar. Add sufficient heavy cream to make a soft paste. To flavor the hot milk which is poured over these buns, steep a two-inch piece of vanilla bean in the milk for ten minutes. (Usually a few bitter almonds are included in the paste.) In the Netherlands is eaten the "Worstebrod" that looks like a plain loaf of bread, but the inside is filled with sausage meat, the last eaten before Lent. In Belgium "Waterzoei," essentially a Flemish dish, is popular on this day as well as throughout Lent. The recipe is flexible and can be adapted to one's personal taste. Waterzoei (Fish Soup) 2 lbs. fish white pepper 3 tablespoons butter salt 1 carrot wine and water 1 onion 1 lemon 3 cloves sprig of parsley thyme The fish used in "Waterzoei" (it is called "Waterzootje" in Dutch) is traditionally carp, eel, tench, roach, perch, or barbel but any combination may be used. Cut off the heads and tails of your fish and fry them lightly in butter, adding the minced carrot and onion, the herbs and the spices. Add 1/3 water and 2/3 dry white wine to generously cover. Let this bouillon simmer for half an hour, then add your fish, cut in 2-inch lengths, and cook quickly for another twenty minutes or until the fish is done. Just before serving add a peeled lemon, cut into thin slices and with the seeds removed. The soup is served with thin slices of brown bread spread with butter. Our informant adds, "For some tastes, the heads and tails should be removed before serving the dish"--with which we would agree heartily. In the southern part of the United States, Mardi Gras--Fat Tuesday--has long been extravagantly celebrated. Many of the inhabitants of New Orleans particularly are of French descent, so it is not strange that the Shrove Tuesday festivities of Paris were brought to the New World, and even improved upon. In New Orleans these end a gay season of parades and balls, very costly in general, and organized by groups known as "krewes." The king of the whole Carnival is chosen by the Rex "krewe" and takes a leading role in the parade and in the revelries and feasting that follow. Private and public dinners are given before the grand ball on the evening of Mardi Gras, and among other items of excellent creole cookery is certain to appear Creme Brulee Creole 8 eggs 2 tablespoons white 2 cups light cream granulated sugar brown sugar pinch of salt Beat your eggs well into the cream, adding the granulated sugar and salt. Cook slowly in a double boiler, stirring constantly until as thick as custard. Pour into a baking dish and set aside to cool. When the custard has set, cover with 1 inch of brown sugar. Place under a preheated broiler for about five minutes, taking care that the sugar does not burn. When cold, place in refrigerator until ready to use. Ash Wednesday We have finished with the feastings of Shrove Tuesday now, and they are a memory only, a haunting aroma, a vanished delight. We have come to Ash Wednesday, "dies cinerum," the beginning of Lent. The origin of the Lenten fast, historically considered, is very obscure. It may have evolved from an ancient one-day fast, which preceded every Sunday, into the forty-day fast which precedes the greatest feast of the Christian year. But this fast is very old in time and dates back almost to Apostolic days. The number forty has many analogies--the number of days of the fast of Elias, of the years of the wandering of the Israelites; of the days of the Flood, of Moses on Mount Sinai, and of Christ in the desert. Saint Irenaeus mentions variations of its length--a day, forty hours, several days. The one day which was always kept as a fast day is that of Good Friday. In early times, as now, food eaten during Lent was a matter of deep interest--what to eat and what not to eat. One historian of the fifth century says that "some abstain from every creature that has life, but that others eat fish; that some eat also birds because in the account of the creation these too sprang from the water. And some eat no fruit with a hard shell and some eat no eggs, and some eat dry bread only and others hardly that." We have fasters of that intense sort today too. There is a super-observance and an under-observance, depending on the person. We know a woman who carefully weighs the amount of bread she eats during Lent so that she does not eat a crumb too much. She has the right idea no doubt because your eyes might give you another piece but your scales won't! None of us, of course, fast today as they did in long-ago centuries, when eggs and butter were taboo and when often the standard diet for Lent consisted only of bread, salt, and water. We doubt whether we could get through a day on bread only, and this is strange, for the people of other days were really better trenchermen than we. Any ancient cookery book will prove that. Why is it then that the modern quails at a diet of bread when this was the sole food taken on any fast day in medieval times? The writer of a recent article, Julie Bedier, gives one explanation. She says, in an article in "The Commonweal," it is because in those days bread was always bread. She writes of the bread of the peasant, a meal in itself, dark brown and solid and substantial, as compared with the urban white bread that is "like a nice, tender paper towel." She feels it would be quite easy to keep a fast on such bread, a complete meal with vitamins intact for desk workers and laborers alike. She may be right at that. We would add one other food item to hers--a good big salad at least once a day. And, of course, plenty of hot coffee. If those three foods make a fast, we are for it. The only problem that remains is how to get simple peasant bread out of a modern bakery. One thing, however, is certain, and that is that fish is a standard food for Lent. The range of choice is certainly wide here, with simple recipes for simple folk and complicated recipes for complicated people. A cookery book of over a hundred years ago mentions two varieties for different castes: for the ordinary you and me there is suggested salt fish with parsley and egg sauce; for the epicure, a dish of turbot with wine gravy and capers. Egg and Parsley Sauce 2 hard-boiled eggs white sauce 1 tablespoon parsley lemon juice onion juice Chop the eggs coarsely and mix with the finely minced parsley. Add this to your white (or cream) sauce which has been flavored with lemon and onion juice. In our democratic way, we can range from a plain slice of codfish to lobster thermidor. An unusual sauce hailing from the Mediterranean is "Aioli," which is really mayonnaise made with garlic, and at times, with bread crumbs. It is served with many things but usually with boiled fish. Aioli 3 cloves garlic salt 2 egg yolks mustard pepper 1-1/3 cups olive oil lemon juice Start by pounding 3 cloves of garlic and then add the egg yolks, seasonings, and then the oil, drop by drop, just as you would in making mayonnaise. A few drops of lemon juice are added at the end. There is still another group of persons who do not like fish in any form, and to them fish is just fish no matter how regal its birth or how great a chef prepares it. These folk might ponder on Saint Corentinus, patron saint of Quimper, a hermit of the sixth century. He lived in a forest, close to a stream; each morning a fish, sent by the angels to nourish him, swam to the bank where he lived. Corentinus cut a slice off of it for his daily meal. Then the fish swam away, evidently feeling happy about the whole thing. Next day he returned promptly to be again amputated. The Irish have a good substantial dish for Lent which is fishless. With them Champ is a favorite dinner for the Lenten season. It is composed of freshly boiled, peeled potatoes, drained and then pounded with a beetle (Irish for potato masher). While the potatoes are being pounded, a vegetable such as nettles, or scallions, or perhaps parsley or chives, which have been boiled in milk, is added. Each person is given a large plateful, a hole is made in the center, and into this a large lump of butter is put. Champ is eaten from the outside with a fork or spoon, dipping it into the melting butter in the center. The whole is washed down with freshly churned buttermilk. Ash Wednesday is observed as a day of absolute fast in many parts of the world. It is not in any case a day for varied menus, but rather one for church attendance and dietetic simplicities. In Spain on this day a strip of pork is cut in the shape of a fish and buried with pomp and ceremony, to signify that there will be less meat on the table for some time to come, and this is called the "entierro de la sardina." England had a pudding for this day--Stir-up Pudding. It was considered wrong to spend time cooking on Ash Wednesday, and this pudding was one which could be stirred up in a hurry, for it consisted only of milk and flour and fruit syrups. Later it was called Hasty Pudding and so the English call it today. Austrians make a pretzel for this day called "Fastenbrezel." This is very appropriate, for the pretzel had a religious origin. In other centuries these were made in monasteries and were shaped like a ring with a cross above them. They were known by the Latin name "pretiolum," which means a little prize. The monks, so the story goes, gave them as prizes to good students and sometimes to all in their schools who had been good children. From this Latin word has evolved our plebian word pretzel, and of course it is easy to see from its shape that it might well have started in life as a circle and a cross. February 14: Feast of Saint Valentine During this month, sometimes within Lent and sometimes before it begins, comes a festival that is everyone's day-- Saint Valentine's. It is the day of lovers' meetings and lovers' greetings. Whether the custom still exists, we don't know, but in our school days we had a box into which everyone put "valentines" for those toward whom he felt a tender passion or even a small affection. It led to unhappy results, for when the box was opened and the children's names were called, the flip little party with golden curls and vacuous blue eyes had her desk piled high, while the good little girl, who cleaned the blackboards after school, had uninteresting braids, and wore glasses, got only one or possibly two. Life, it is true, may be just like that, but perhaps more than one female of uncertain age is telling her psychoanalyst about one of those valentine boxes. At all events, Valentine's Day is a day of love. In the Middle Ages there was a belief that on this day the birds began to mate, and Chaucer speaks of Seynt Valentyne's Day, When every foul cometh to choos hys mate. The identity of the saint who started all this is really not known. There were three Valentines, all saints and martyrs, and all honored on this day. One died in Rome, one was a bishop at Terni, and one came from Africa. It is the bishop who is usually associated with the celebration of this day. Certainly, whoever he may be, he has made it a pleasant feast, and Charles Lamb calls him "the great immortal go- between." In Leicestershire, England, lozenge-shaped buns, made with caraway seeds and currants, called Valentine Buns were formerly given to old people and children. The old-fashioned Valentine cookies, cut into heart shapes, sprinkled with red sugar, and decorated with red and white frosting, or even gilt, have also gone out of style. They should be revived. Saint Valentine Cookies 2-1/2 cups brown sugar 1 tablespoon ginger 1-1/2 cups cream 1/2 grated lemon rind 1 cup molasses 8 cups flour 3 teaspoons soda Beat the sugar into the cream until it is thickened but not stiff; then add the molasses, ginger, and lemon rind and mix thoroughly. Sift the flour with the soda and add this to the first mixture. Knead until smooth and chill several hours, or better still, overnight. Roll out dough 1/8 inch thick, cut into desired shapes (hearts of course!) and bake at 275 degrees F. for fifteen minutes. Allow to cool before removing from sheet. Decorate! MARCH March 1: Feast of Saint David THE FIRST day of March marks the day of a saint who would seem to have no association with the culinary art but who is known to have had the leek as his symbol. The figure of David, the principal patron of Wales, is shrouded in legend, but he is said to have been a monk and a bishop; he is popularly supposed to have been a nephew of King Arthur. It is told that when his people were engaged in a bitter battle against the Saxons, both armies looked alike in battle dress, and so close was the fighting that it was very hard to distinguish between friend and foe. David suggested that the Welsh soldiers wear a leek in their hats so that they could be readily identified from the enemy. They obeyed and won the battle. Thereafter the leek became the national symbol of Wales, and it is still worn by Welshmen on this day. The wearing and eating of the leek is a way of designating the true Taffy even away from home, and at Jesus College, Oxford, much frequented by Welshmen, Saint David's Day is marked by the undergraduates wearing real leeks; and a dinner is given, attended by the Fellows, who wear artificial ones in their buttonholes. There is an excellent soup which has this vegetable as its chief ingredient. Welsh Leek Soup 4 large leeks 1 onion 4 potatoes butter 6 cups water 2 egg yolks salt 1/2 cup cream pepper Carefully wash the leeks and cut them into narrow strips. Peel the potatoes, slice them, and cook them in the water with a pinch of salt until soft. Mince an onion, mix with the leeks, and saute in a little butter till soft but not brown. Add to the potatoes. When the vegetables are quite soft, put them through a fine sieve and return to the liquid. Beat 2 egg yolks and mix with the cream; put in a tureen and add a little of the hot soup, stirring all the while. Season to taste. Add the rest of the soup and serve. March 17: Feast of Saint Patrick The great Irish Patrick follows the Welsh David in our roll call of the saints. His name means the patrician, and he was the son of highborn Roman parents who were Christians, his father holding the office of "decurio" in Gaul or Britain. Captured by Irish marauders when he was a lad, he was taken to Ireland and sold into slavery; after six years he escaped and returned to his native land. But he had grown to love the Ireland of his captivity, and he set his heart on its conversion to Christianity. Serenely he went ahead with his mission and prepared himself under the guidance of a relative, Saint Martin of Tours, at the island monastery of Lerins. Arriving in Ireland to begin his work, Patrick was bitterly opposed by the Druids, but he preached and taught there for many years and succeeded in establishing the Christian faith. His feast is one of high celebration not only in the Ireland of his love and labors but in the United States as well. In fact, one admiring Irish visitor, seeing the celebrations of this day in New York City, gave the highest praise he could when he remarked that they "excelled those in Dublin itself." And no doubt he had little difficulty in finding in New York the potato dish he would have eaten on that day in his own Dublin. This, called Colcannon, is one of Ireland's favorites, since for the Irish "a day without potatoes is a day without nourishment"; and he would have doubtless covered it with a rich brown gravy of some kind. Colcannon 1 lb. cold boiled potatoes 4 tablespoons bacon fat 1 onion 2 cups boiled cabbage salt and pepper Mash the potatoes. Mince the onion and fry lightly in the bacon fat (butter may be substituted). Mix potatoes, cabbage which has been chopped, and the onion and season with salt and pepper. Grease a baking dish, pour in the mixture, and bake for thirty minutes in a moderate oven at 350 degrees F. And he would certainly try to find: Irish Soda Bread 2 lbs. flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon cream of tartar Sift the flour and the dry ingredients into a bowl. Make a hole in the center and stir in the buttermilk. If too dry, add a little more milk. Make a rather stiff dough, divide into 2 loaves, and bake on a greased pan in a moderate oven at 350 degrees F. for forty-five minutes. Back in his own country our Irishman would have eaten (for all fast-day laws are suspended on Saint Patrick's Day) succulent chops, boiled ham, roast chicken, or good roast beef and these he could easily find in New York too. But he would have had trouble locating an Irish extra-special dish such as this eaten only on great occasions: Jellied Pig's Head Clean the pig's head thoroughly, split it in two, and allow it to pickle for four days in a brine made of one part salt to nine parts water. Then put into a large pot, cover with water, and add 1 large onion quartered, a clove of garlic (optional), the rind of 1 lemon, 1 bay leaf, 6 whole peppercorns, and 6 whole cloves. Bring to a boil and then allow to simmer for three to four hours, that is, until the meat is tender but unbroken. The most delicate part of the next operation is removing all of the bones while still retaining the shape of the head. The tongue may be cut up and inserted in various places where the cooking has caused a loss of fat. Place the head in a deep bowl and cover with the stock, adding salt if necessary and a little white vinegar, just enough to make it tart. Set in a cool place until the stock has jellied. Unmould and cut in very thin slices. Serve with a necklace of parsley. March 19: Feast of Saint Joseph Two days after the feast of the great Irish saint comes the day of the carpenter of Nazareth, Saint Joseph, "the just man," of whom the Gospels say little but whom the world has taken to its heart. Although he is often pictured as an aged man, bearded and bent with years, we incline to the concept of a younger Joseph, more fitted to his role as protector of the young Mary and her Child. Saint Joseph is patron of many places and many trades. He is the patron of the spiritual home of Christians, the Church, and of their material homes as well. Generosity marks this day, as it did the character of Joseph himself. In many nations it is a day of sharing with the poor and needy, and nowhere is this better carried out than in the nation which perhaps loves San Giuseppe the most-- Italy. In many Italian villages, and especially in Sicily, everyone of any means contributes to a table spread in the public square as a thank offering for favors received from prayers to this kindly saint. The bread made for this day is often shaped like a scepter or a beard; villagers representing Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are guests of honor at the feast, and other guests are the orphans and widows and beggars. After Mass all go in procession to this festive table and, after the priest blesses the feast, everyone falls to with shouts of "Viva la tavila di San Giuseppe!" At the end of the meal every guest is given something to take home. At these feasts a good soup is usually served, preferably "Minestrone." Minestrone 1/2 lb. salt pork 2 tablespoons butter 2 qts. water 1 cup dried beans 1 clove garlic (soaked overnight) 2 sprigs parsley salt and pepper 2 carrots rice 2 stalks celery 1/2 cup peas 1/2 small head of cabbage Cut the rind from the pork and set it to boil in cold water. Cut off a small piece of the pork and pound it in a mortar, with the garlic and the parsley. Slice the carrots, the celery, the cabbage leaves (remove ribs), and add with the butter, the dried beans, salt and pepper to the boiling water. Then add the rest of the pork and allow to simmer for two and one-half hours. Then add a handful of rice for each person to be served together with the peas. Cook until rice is done. Although all kinds of lentils and dried beans are eaten on Saint Joseph's feast, the cheese, usually so popular a part of the Italian diet, is not served, and instead of the usual grated Parmesan the minestrone would be served with dry toasted bread crumbs. The traditional dessert is a cream puff known as "Sfinge di San Giuseppe." Sfinge (Sphinx Puffs) 1 cup pastry flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 cup butter 4 eggs 1 cup water grated orange peel salt grated lemon peel Filling 1 lb. ricotta (Italian 2 tablespoons sugar pot cheese) orange peel 2 tablespoons chocolate creme de cacao To make your puffs, combine flour, butter, water, salt, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook and stir until the mass leaves the side of the pan. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a little grated orange and lemon peel. Drop by tablespoon on a baking sheet; bake at 400 degrees F. for ten minutes and then reduce heat to 350 degrees F. for another twenty-five minutes. Stir until smooth the "ricotta," chocolate, sugar, a little grated orange peel, and a generous dash of "creme de cacao" and use this to fill your puffs when they have cooled. A special dessert made in Bologna for this feast is "Ravioli di San Giuseppe." Made in the same way as other dumplings but with puff paste or short crust, they are filled either with marzipan or some kind of jam, and either baked in the oven or fried in oil to a rich golden color. In Naples "Zeppole" or cream fritters are traditional. In Russia "Blini" are served with sour cream, and in Sweden a bun with cream and butter and bits of marzipan. Again in Italy little cakes filled with jam are hawked at street corners on Saint Joseph's Day. Sold right from the kettles in which they are cooked, they sometimes make the whole city smell like one vast bakeshop. March 21: Feast of Saint Benedict We are told that when a youth of only fifteen years, Benedict fled from the gay life of Rome to the silence and solitude of a great forest. Young as he was, he knew exactly the life he wanted to lead, and it was that of a hermit. However, since he had not taken thought as to how to provide himself with food to sustain life, his childhood nurse insisted on following him and preparing for him the food she obtained by begging. Once when she broke a sieve which she had borrowed, Benedict by a miracle made it whole again. But after some years of these ministrations, Benedict fled from her too, this time to a cave at Subiaco. There a hermit named Romanus brought him food for a while, but when Romanus died, there was no one to serve him. Then an angel took over and guided to the saint's cave a priest who carried with him a considerable store of provisions which he shared with the hermit of Subiaco. Later, Benedict had to leave his beloved retreat for God needed him elsewhere, and at Monte Cassino, where had been altars to Venus and to Jupiter, he erected a great monastery and founded a great order and a rule of life described as "a monument of wisdom," and which has survived the centuries. But in his early days Benedict was certainly the most waited-on saint in all the long list of hermits! Since Saint Benedict's feast day falls in Lent, we suggest for his feast Eggs Benedict, although we are fully aware the saint did not invent this dish. Lenten Eggs Benedict Follow the usual procedure for Eggs Benedict using 1/2 toasted muffin and 1 poached egg for each portion. Before placing the egg on the muffin spread this generously with anchovy paste stirred with enough heavy cream so that it will spread easily. Then add your egg, cover with a good hollandaise, and place a thin slice of truffle or about 6 capers on top. March 25: Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary This feast celebrates the actual moment of the Incarnation, when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary in her home in Nazareth--a scene so often commemorated in art and story and marked by every ringing of the Angelus bell. In old calendars it is called Feast of the Incarnation, Beginning of the Redemption, Annunciation of Our Lord. It is now held as a feast in honor of Our Lady in the Western Church, although the Church of the East makes the day rather a feast of Christ. This day, also known as Lady Day, has long been observed with high honor in many parts of the world. In Russia it was considered so solemn a feast that, according to popular tradition, "even the birds do not mate on this day." It is also the day of the years when, according to belief in the Tyrol, the swallows return from their winter sojourn. And they will tell you too that on September 8th, which is Mary's birthday, they will once again fly southward. In Sweden this day is familiarly called "Vaffelsdagen" (Waffle Day), and here is a favorite recipe. Swedish Waffles 1-1/3 cups flour 2 cups sour cream 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons water 1/2 cup butter Sift the flour with the salt and add to the cream together with the water which should be ice cold. Keep this batter in the refrigerator for one to two hours. Then melt the butter and add to the batter. Heat the waffle iron and bake your waffles as usual. Serve with lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon, or stewed lingonberries. MID-LENT Laetare or Mothering Sunday Mid-Lent is marked by Laetare Sunday, a name given the day because this word, meaning rejoice, is the beginning of the Introit of the Mass. It is a break in the long weeks of Lent with their dark liturgical vestments and flowerless altars; on this day the vestments are rose in color and the altar is decked with blossoms. It is called Rose Sunday too, because it is the day on which in Rome the Pope blesses the Golden Rose, an ornament made of gold and precious gems, with a receptacle within the blossom into which is poured balsam and powdered musk. The Pontiff prays that the Church may so bring forth the fruit of good works and "the perfume of the ointment of the Flower sprung from the root of Jesse." These Golden Roses are given from time to time to churches or cities or to persons who have been of great service to the Church. This day is also known as Mothering Sunday, either from a reference in the Epistle read on the fourth Sunday of Lent or because of the former custom of visiting the cathedral, that is, the mother church, on that day. And there grew up, especially in England, the idea of visiting one's own mother and taking her a gift, a custom which has grown to very secular heights today in our country on Mother's Day. It began with the praiseworthy idea of wearing a flower in honor of one's mother and, though the practice is still followed, the simple posy has grown into expensive purchases of flowers and gifts of other kinds. Perhaps it would be better to forget this new notion and go back to the old custom of visiting the church, since by honoring Mother Church one honors all mothers. And a single flower and a prayer is surely better than a fine bouquet and no prayer. Braggot was a favorite drink for this feast day, and the word comes from the Welsh words for malt and honey. Braggot was made by boiling a variety of spices in ale, and often honey was added. Though originally a Welsh drink, it became popular in many countries and was quaffed everywhere until tea replaced it. One delicacy especially associated with Mothering Sunday is the Simnel Cake, a yeast cake very yellow in color because of the saffron and candied peel it contained. The simnels were wrapped in cloth and boiled, then brushed with egg and baked, making a very hard cake indeed, and giving rise to the story of the lady who used one for years as a footstool. The name simnel seems to be derived from the Latin word for very fine flour, "simila." Long before the above boiled and baked cake came into being, there was made an unleavened wafer of the same name. In those days the recipe was apparently very simple, calling only for fine wheat flour, for honey and anise to sweeten and flavor, and cold water to make a thin batter which was stamped with a wafering iron. The later simnel cakes were much more complicated of structure, but they remained very popular despite the complaints of the bakers that too much hard work was involved in making them. Candy, spice, eggs must take-- Chop and pound till arms do ache. So runs one old rhymed recipe for simnels. And Herrick says of these cakes: I'll to thee a simnel bring 'Gainst thou go a-mothering; So that, when she blesses thee, Half that blessing thou'lt give me. There is a modern version of this cake which is quite good and worth the effort. Simnel Cake 3/4 cup butter 1/3 cup shredded lemon 2 cups sugar and orange peel 4 eggs 1 cup currants 2 cups flour almond paste 1/2 teaspoon salt Cream the butter and sugar till smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Sift the flour and salt, and add to the first mixture. Dust the peel and the currants with a little flour and add to the batter. Line a round cake tin with wax paper and pour in half of the dough. Add a layer of almond paste, then the remaining dough. Bake at 300 degrees F. for one hour. Ice with a thin white icing flavored with a few drops of almond extract. Passion Sunday, also called Carling Sunday This Sunday marks the beginning of Passiontide, the two weeks between this day and Easter especially commemorating the Passion or sufferings of Christ, the time when pictures and statues in churches are veiled in purple. There is no food connected with the idea of the Passion, but there is with an event said to have taken place on this Sunday and which gave the day its second title of Carling Sunday. According to the story, a famine in Newcastle, England, was relieved when on that day there came into the harbor a ship with a cargo of peas commonly known as carlings. Some authorities hazard the guess that the name came from a penitential Lenten practice of wearing hard peas within the shoe--certainly a most uncomfortable custom. The peas from which the day takes its secondary title are a variety of gray or brown pea prepared sometimes as a soup, sometimes fried in butter after being steeped in water all night--"until they be tender got." To modern palates the soup would no doubt be far more palatable. Pea Soup 1 cup split peas 2 diced carrots 1 stalk celery 1 sliced onion 6 peppercorns 1 bay leaf 8 cups water salt 1/2 cup cream Wash and soak the peas overnight or use the quick-cooking variety. Place with the remaining ingredients except the cream, to boil, or rather simmer for about two hours. Mash through a fine sieve and add more water if necessary. Mix a little flour with the cream and stir slowly into the soup. Serve with buttered croutons. Another dish served in some countries on this Sunday was Frumenty, a very ancient dish indeed. It consisted of wheaten meal boiled in water and sweetened with sugar. There is a legend that this is the food with which Joseph regaled his brethren and that he gave a double portion to the one brother who had been kind to him, the young Benjamin. Palm Sunday This day in observance of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem is everywhere commemorated. In Rome at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, "the mother and head of all the churches in the city and in the world," are blessed branches of palm and olive trees, and in churches of every country palms or green branches of some kind are blessed and distributed to the congregation. These palms are saved carefully, later to be burned to ashes for the next year's ceremonies of Ash Wednesday. Palm Sunday was sometimes called Hosanna Sunday in past years, and was also known as the Flowery Festival because blossoms were intertwined with the palms. One of our American States owes its name to this custom: Florida was discovered on Palm Sunday of 1512, and the Spanish therefore named the day "Pascua Florida." In Sicily dust from the church floor is swept up on this day and spread over the fields, and in Russia boughs of pussy willow are blessed and waved over the grain as protection against the elements. In other countries very elaborately decorated "palms" are constructed by young men and their lasses. All week long they collect flowers, fruit, honeycombs, and other edibles, which are hung on a large cross and what is left over is fastened to a pole. Of course the most heavily laden of these prove most popular the couple who constructed them. In the Tyrol it is the children who make elaborate "palms" woven with ribbons and decorated with apples, candy, and flowers. The structure is topped by a bunch of pussy willows, and these are called "palm kittens" by the Tyrolese. After the palms have been proudly displayed in the church and through the village, the creators of the fine affairs take them home and eat all that is edible. In various parts of England this day is sometimes called Fig Sunday. Rich and poor eat figs on this day, and the markets of years ago were filled with this fruit on the eve of the feast. A rather odd item of the 1860's describing this custom says that "even the charity children are in some places regaled with them." Why the custom of eating figs on this day came into being no one knows for certain, but some authorities suggest it may be from the tradition that Christ ate figs after His entry into Jerusalem. This is connected with the withering of the barren fig tree, related shortly after the account of the triumphant entry into Jerusalem in Saint Matthew's Gospel. Fig Pudding 1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon baking 1/3 cup butter powder 2 cups bread crumbs cinnamon 1 cup milk nutmeg 4 eggs cloves 1/4 cup flour 1/2 cup figs 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup seeded raisins Cream the sugar and butter, add the bread crumbs and milk, and mix thoroughly. Add the beaten eggs, the flour sifted with salt and baking powder and a pinch of each of the spices, the figs which have been chopped, and the raisins. Fill a greased pudding mold three-quarters full, cover tightly, and steam for three hours. Serve with hard or lemon sauce. Maundy Thursday Maundy or Holy Thursday is of course the day commemorating the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. The derivation of the word "maundy" has been given as the Saxon word "maund," for the hamper originally used to hold provisions to be given to the poor, for it was a day of almsgiving and generosity to those in need. The word is also said to come from the old French word "maundier," to beg. Most likely of its explanations is that it was named from the antiphon of the ceremony of the Washing of the Feet which takes place on that day: "Mandatum novum do vobis"--"A new commandment I give to you," words spoken by Our Lord to His disciples on the eve of His death. A custom was prevalent in certain European countries that greens should be eaten on this day, coming no doubt from the Charoseth or Jewish meal of bitter herbs, and the day is sometimes called Green Thursday. Among the Pennsylvania Dutch, spinach and dandelion greens are still eaten on Holy Thursday to prevent spring illness, an idea no doubt brought from Germany where it is an ancient belief. Perhaps this was considered a tonic after the Lenten foods, vitamins for a system which for some weeks had been underfed and might be open to attack by some germ or virus. Since the idea seems a good one, we offer a spinach dish for this day. Holy Thursday Spinach Prepare your spinach in the usual manner. Chop it finely--do not put it through a grinder. Mince an onion, fry it lightly in 2 tablespoons of butter, dust with a little flour, and stir into your chopped spinach. Then add 1 cup of sour cream, stirring thoroughly. Boil 2 eggs until hard, slice, and place over your spinach in the shape of a cross. In Czechoslovakia children are given for breakfast on Maundy Thursday what are called Judases, rather gruesome cakes shaped like a rope in commemoration of the tragic end of the betrayer. In Picardy the children who chant the hours of the services are rewarded with eggs. In Macedonia little cakes are made called Turtledoves in the form of a bird and having cloves for eyes. Another custom followed there on Holy Thursday is the coloring of the eggs for Easter. The mother of the family, after decorating the first Easter egg and making with it the sign of the cross over her children, places it close to the icon of the "Panagia"--the Greek word for The All Holy, the common Greek name for Our Lady, a contraction of her full title: All Holy Mother of God. Good Friday In the Eastern Church this day is known as Great or Holy Friday. The Western title is supposed to be a corruption of the phrase "God's Friday," the day on which Christ died. On this day the bells are silenced, and in France the children are told that they have flown to Rome to return only on Holy Saturday. In Italy on Good Friday children are even warned not to laugh when playing, because of the solemnity of the time. In certain places this day is observed by so strict a fast that it is often called the Black Fast, because many do not eat at all until sundown. However, one article of food is intimately associated with and eaten on this day, and that is the Hot Cross Bun. Hot Cross Buns originated in England, and more than one nursery rhyme and ballad contain references to them. Saffron plays a part in the better-class English Hot Cross Bun, but as a rule they are small and plain, well browned and with icing on top in the form of a cross. Hot Cross Buns 1 yeast cake 1 egg 1/4 cup lukewarm water 1/4 cup shredded citron 1 cup milk 1/4 cup seedless raisins 1/2 cup sugar 3 cups flour 1/2 cup shortening 1/2 teaspoon salt Soften the yeast in the lukewarm water. Scald milk, add sugar and shortening, and cool. Add the beaten egg, the yeast, citron, raisins, and the flour sifted with the salt. Knead and let rise to double its bulk. Shape into buns, place on greased baking sheet, and let rise until light. Brush with a little milk and bake at 375 degrees F. for about twenty minutes. When done, cover with powdered sugar in the shape of a cross or do the same with a thin icing. There were many superstitions concerning this bun. In some families one was put aside and kept during the following year. If someone fell ill, a little of the bun was grated into water and given to the sick person to aid his recovery. And so much has this bread become a symbol of friendship that if two people break a bun between them and eat it, the English tradition runs: Half for you and half for me, Between us two shall goodwill be. Perhaps if the warring nations, the ones for whom Good Friday was once a holy day observed by the Truce of God, and the ones to whom it still represents a basic fact in the life of the spirit, could be persuaded to break a Good Friday bun instead of each other's heads, the world might again progress in amity and friendship. They might all know Him again in the breaking of bread. In many parts of Germany it is customary to eat only "Spatzle" and stewed fruits for the evening meal on Good Friday. Spatzle (Dumplings) 1-1/2 cups flour 1/2 cup milk pinch of salt 1/2 cup water 2 eggs bread crumbs 1/4 lb. butter Sift the flour with the salt into a bowl. Add the eggs and the milk and water. Stir until smooth. Then, with a fork dipped in boiling water, cut the dough in small pieces into boiling water. Boil for a few minutes until they rise to the top. Cover with bread crumbs fried in butter. Serve with warm stewed prunes or other dried fruits. APRIL April 1: Feast of Saint Hugh of Grenoble APRIL is the "opening month," the month of expectation of spring and new hope. Centuries ago April was considered the year's actual beginning, and in some ways this seems more fitting than our present arrangement. For the earth that has been hard and cold with winter is growing soft again with rain and sun, and in garden and woodland the early flowers are in bloom; the great resurgent mystery which we accept as commonplace is again before us. Even though Easter sometimes comes earlier, this month is, in truth, the month of the Resurrection and Risen Love. There is a saint for this day, Hugh of Grenoble, who lived in the twelfth century and who sometimes left his bishopric to live for a time in a Carthusian monastery as a simple monk. Once, on arriving, he found the monks assembled in the refectory but with nothing to eat. He was told that some benefactor had indeed given them fowl but their rule forbade the eating of meat. When Saint Hugh saw their predicament, he promptly made the sign of the cross and changed the fowl into turtles. Could there be anything more appropriate for this day, then, than Mock Turtle Soup? Mock Turtle Soup 1 calf's head pinch of cayenne butter pepper 2 veal bones 6 cloves 1 lb. beef pinch of mace 6 onions pinch of basil 2 shallots 1/2 glass sherry rind of 1 lemon juice of 2 lemons Plunge the calf's head into boiling water, let it remain for one minute, then remove and rub with a coarse towel. Bone the head, put it into a saucepan, cover with cold water, and skim several times as it boils. Butter the bottom of a soup kettle; add the veal bones which have been cracked and 2 quarts of cold water. Cover and reduce until almost all the water has boiled away, leaving a sort of glaze. Add the calf's head, beef, onions, shallots, lemon rind and the seasoning and herbs, with water to cover generously and boil until the calf's head is done. Strain and let it cool; then remove all of the fat. Put back in the kettle, add the meat of the calf's head and the tongue cut in small cubes. Add the sherry and the lemon juice. Heat to the boiling point but do not boil. Holy Saturday In the early centuries of the Church, the lengthy office of Holy Saturday was recited at midnight on the eve of Easter. The ceremonies of the lighting of the new fire and illumination of the Paschal candle, the blessing of the baptismal font, and the prophecies and litanies ended, as was reasonable, at the first Mass of Easter morning itself. Today we have all this on the morning of Holy Saturday, but there are signs that we will return to the earlier way. Lent is considered to end at noon on Holy Saturday. Not only is the fast ended, but there takes place the dropping of the veils from the statues, the swift replacing on the empty altar of candles and flowers in preparation for the glorious drama of the Resurrection. The "anticipation" of Easter is observed in various countries on Holy Saturday by religious processions, the lighting of new fires and other local customs. Sometimes a large bonfire of burning logs is made before the cathedrals of Germany and Austria and used for the new fire of the liturgical ceremonies. From these the children take home pieces of burning wood, from which is lighted the fire for cooking the Easter food. In Italian homes various customs are observed. The parish priest passes from house to house blessing each with holy water. At dinner the head of the family blesses the table with a palm branch kept from Palm Sunday, and special cakes and a pizza made with eggs are eaten. Casatiella (Egg Pizza) 1 lb. flour 1 cup lukewarm water 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 yeast cake or lard 4 hard-boiled eggs Sift flour and salt on a board and add the yeast which has been dissolved in the lukewarm water. Knead well and work in 2 tablespoons of olive oil or lard; knead again until smooth. Set aside in a warm place to rise for about three hours or until doubled in bulk. Then spread the dough about 3/4 inch thick in your largest pie pan. Make eight holes at regular intervals, insert half a hard-boiled egg, and press surrounding dough over it to cover. Brush with a little oil or butter, sprinkle with salt, and bake for about twenty minutes in a 400 degrees F. oven. Most interesting customs are observed in Poland where the "Swiecone" or Easter repast is laid out in order on the table, sometimes enough food for the whole of Easter week, and blessed by the priest who makes the rounds to the homes of his flock on Holy Saturday. On this table one finds hams and legs of veal and lamb twined around with linked sausages. In the center is a mould of butter or a cake shaped like a lamb and circled with cakes and colored eggs. The moulded lamb is apt to carry a Polish flag--it is typical of Poland to bring the symbol of its beloved land to this great spiritual feast. The Moravians brought early to this country from Bohemia by way of Germany their special observances of Holy Saturday. The Unitas Fratrum, or followers of Huss, settled in Pennsylvania in 1740, and at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, among other places, their early customs are still faithfully observed. In Bethlehem, in the late afternoon of Holy Saturday a band of trombone players mount to the steeple of the church, where traditional hymns are played. Afterward, following a "love feast," a choir, accompanied by the trombonists, goes from house to house singing, and this continues until early morning. After a breakfast of Moravian sugar cakes and coffee, the entire congregation returns to the church for a pre-sunrise meeting. Then in slow procession all go to the burial ground, where the graves of the departed have been decked with flowers; there, facing the east, the trombones greet the rising sun. There is a short service, and a very joyous one, for the Easter day has dawned. Moravian Love Cakes 2 cups honey 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 2 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 4 oz. chopped almonds pinch of cloves 1/2 lb. chopped candied rind of 1 lemon peel 2 tablespoons sherry 1/2 teaspoon baking soda or rum flour Boil the honey and sugar for five minutes. Add the chopped almonds and boil for another five minutes; then add the chopped candied peel, the soda, the nutmeg freshly grated, cloves, cinnamon, lemon rind grated, and the sherry. Add enough sifted flour to make a dough that will roll out thinly, cut into oblongs, and bake in a 300 degrees F. oven for about twenty minutes. Ice with sugar. EASTER SUNDAY: Feast of the Resurrection The greatest feast of the Christian Church takes its name, strangely enough, from that of Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn. For this statement we have the authority of the learned Venerable Bede. The feast, however, has another name, the "Pasch," the Greek word coming from the Hebrew "pesakh," the Passover. This is the term for the feast which is used in nearly every language save English and German, and even these two use the words Paschal candle and Paschaltide. In the churches of the Eastern Orthodox the feast of Easter comes somewhat later than in the Western calendar, but the observance is as great, if not greater. Among Orthodox Russians two people meeting on the street at Easter exchange greetings that give in two short phrases the essence of the day. "Christ is risen," says one, and the other responds, "He is risen indeed." The Orthodox ceremony of Easter includes an early morning procession to a church which is in utter darkness; the Resurrection is announced to the congregation by the ceremony called "the Assault of Heaven," which takes place before its closed doors. Then the procession enters, but now into an edifice brilliantly lighted, for all know that Christ has, as the phrase has it, risen indeed. In the older Russia Easter was a day of great feasting. On long tables were placed roasted pig and sausages and sweet tarts. And there was especially the "Paskha" of cheese and the "Koulich," the latter a bread so delicate that pillows were put about the pan in which the dough was rising so that it would not fall; anxious housewives kept husbands with heavy boots and frolicking children out of the kitchen until the "Koulich" was safely out of the oven. Deep in the top of this cake were formed the letters "X V," the initials of the words meaning "Christ is risen." Paskha 3/4 lb. cream cheese 1/4 lb. chopped almonds 1/4 lb. sweet butter 1/4 lb. chopped candied 1/2 cup sour cream peel 1/4 lb. sugar 1/2 lb. seedless raisins Take the cream cheese (or pot cheese) which should be quite dry and mix it well with the butter, sour cream, the sugar, the blanched, chopped almonds, the candied peel and the raisins. The mixing is essential and may best be done with an electric beater. Traditionally the "paskha" is pressed in a wooden mould. However, it can be placed in a strainer lined with a piece of moistened cheesecloth and left to drain for at least half a day or overnight. Turn out your "paskha" and decorate it with almonds and raisins in the form of a cross. Koulich 1 cup white raisins 1-1/2 cups scalded milk 3 tablespoons rum 7 eggs 1-1/2 yeast cakes 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup warm water 3/4 lb. butter 10 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon saffron Soak the raisins in the rum. Soak the yeast in the lukewarm water. Mix 5 cups of the flour with the milk which has been cooled; combine with the yeast and beat well. Allow to rise for three hours in a warm place. Beat the yolks of 5 eggs with the sugar. Mix with the batter. Melt the butter, mix with the salt and the raisins, and add to the batter. Sift the rest of the flour with the saffron. Mix into the batter and knead well. Bake in a pan that should be about 12 inches high (a lard pail will do). Brush with butter and set to rise again till double in bulk. Brush top with egg yoke; bake in a 400 degrees F. oven fur fifteen minutes and then reduce heat to 350 degrees F. for another forty-five minutes or until done. The "Koulich" of Russia becomes the "Babka" of Poland; the name derives from the word meaning old woman, because the cake, tall and wide, looks like an old woman with wide skirts. For this feast the tables of Hungary were formerly as laden as those of Poland, and the various dishes served were very similar. In Italy the Easter customs concerning food are many and varied. Even for breakfast are prepared special dishes of eggs with vegetables and herbs. There are many holiday breads, and on the dinner table appears inevitably "Agnellino" (roasted baby lamb) always accompanied by roasted artichokes. Carciofi Arrostiti (Roasted Artichokes) 6 artichokes 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoons chopped salt and pepper parsley 6 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 cup water After removing the tough outer leaves of your artichokes, soak them for half an hour, heads down, in a bowl of well- salted cool water. Make a paste of your parsley, garlic, and salt and pepper and spread between the leaves of your artichokes. Place in a saucepan so that they will stand upright with half the oil at the bottom of the pan and the rest poured over the vegetables. "Roast" for five to six minutes over a high flame, taking care that they do not burn. Add a little water and cook until the water has evaporated. Then add the rest of the water and continue cooking, about half an hour in all or until the outer leaves come off easily. In Switzerland a plain coffee cake is made in the form of a small wreath in the center of which is imbedded a colored egg. When the baking is finished, the egg seems to be neatly resting in a brown nest. The custom also exists in Italy, but in bringing it to America the form of the cake has been changed. Often now we see it in the shape of a rabbit with colored eggs stuck in various places. This effect is ridiculous, but the little Swiss wreath is charming. From Italy comes for this feast a wonderful soup called "Brodetto Pasquale." Brodetto Pasquale (Easter Broth) 1 lb. lean beef 3 leeks 1 lb. breast of lamb herb bouquet 1 veal bone spring marjoram 1 beef bone peppercorns 3 qts. water salt 3 carrots egg yolks (1 per portion) 1 stalk celery lemon juice Parmesan cheese Put the bones and the meat in the soup kettle with cold water. Bring to a boil and skim carefully. Add the vegetables, herbs and seasoning. Cover with a lid partially open (this helps to keep the broth clear) and simmer for about three hours. Break as many egg yolks in a dish as there are to be portions served and beat with a little lemon juice. Gradually add the soup, hot off the fire, stirring continuously. Place back on the fire and allow to thicken but not boil. Serve in a tureen, with narrow strips of toast dusted with grated Parmesan. In Finland there is a very special Easter dish called "paasiasismammi," a porridge which from its name might well be called Proofreader's Despair, and from which even the trained and etymological eye can discern easily only the first part, evidently meaning Pasch. This porridge is as complicated as its name; it is made of rye flour, orange peel, and malt, and mixed with water, boiled very slowly, and eaten cold with cream. It is an indispensable Easter item on every Finnish table. As in so many other lands, Greece prefers the lamb for Easter dinner to all other meats, though there is a very special bread called the Bread of Christ, marked with a cross and decorated with red Easter eggs, which is also a required item. But the important thing is lamb. In fact, there comes from Macedonia this proverb, "Easter without lamb is a thing that cannot be." Greek Easter Lamb Prepare your leg of lamb as usual. When it is ready for the oven, make three or four incisions and insert in each a clove of garlic. Rub with salt and pepper, lemon juice, and a generous portion of marjoram. Wild marjoram is used in Greece and is called "rigano". If you can get dried "oregano," use this instead of the marjoram. In Greek "origanon" means "the joy of the mountains." Since leg of lamb is inclined to be dry, most cooks advise leaving the skin, or fell, around it. However, then the seasoning does not penetrate as well as it should. Should your lamb be dry, rub it well with 2 tablespoons of butter before applying the seasoning. Lamb should be well done, in a moderate oven, and basted from time to time with the pan juices. It may be served with rice or potatoes or eggplant. If using potatoes, slice them thin and add them to the roast, with a cup of tomatoes, half an hour before the roast is done. If using rice, this may also be added to the roasting pan but see that it has been cooked for about ten minutes previously; instead of tomatoes, use 2 cups of tomato juice which will be absorbed by the rice. Small eggplants, cut in half lengthwise (do not peel), can be added with the potatoes and tomatoes. The roasting time depends upon the size of your leg of lamb, but thirty to thirty-five minutes to the pound will suffice. To the lamb Greece adds jellied fish in a cross-shaped mould, "Dolmas" and "Callalou" and a delicious rose leaf jam. Rose Leaf Jam Take the petals only of dark red roses, taking care not to include any of the pollen, and an equal amount of sugar. To a pound of each allow the juice of 2 lemons and a little water. Set in the sun until the sugar is completely melted. Then boil for twenty minutes and put in jars. Not in any one country but in nearly every land we find another specific article of food for this day, and that is the Easter egg. The coloring of eggs for spring festivals is a very ancient custom and long pre-dates Christianity. The Egyptians and the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, all colored eggs. In every land the egg is the symbol of fertility; the coloring on them is sometimes merely adornment but sometimes it has a deeper meaning, as in countries where they are colored red as a symbol of the blood of Christ. In Poland colored eggs are called "pisanki," from the word to write, because the Easter egg is one on which are written symbols. Perhaps the most beautiful of all are the diagramed eggs of the Russians, works of true art and almost too beautiful to be broken and eaten in plebeian fashion. The Easter eggs one sees today in many homes in the United States are not the colored eggs of an earlier day. The little pellets pasted on a card and dissolved in old cups are too pastel for some of us oldsters. We remember eggs that were far from pallid as these are, and that were, in fact, exactly like the vivid foreign eggs. One of us remembers how her mother made her own dyes. She boiled the skins of yellow onions for hours and produced with the liquid glorious orange eggs. She made the red ones by boiling red yarn in water. The green came from little bottles of color bought at the drug store, but occasionally she made this too from young spinach, washed, squeezed, and boiled. Often these colors were dappled on the hot egg with a new lampwick. And then, while they were still hot, all the eggs were rubbed with a cloth dipped in butter. These bright shells were, as Browning says somewhere, "reds and greens indeed." The pastel product of today is too pale and insipid for those who remember the vivid bowls of eggs in the center of the dining room table. These early American eggs and the fine ones in Slavic countries are the only Easter eggs worthy of consideration-- the marvelously designed and intricately drawn Russian one and the old-fashioned and deeply colored American egg. But never the heresy of one with a bunny stamped on it; never the pallid copy made with pellet dyes; and never the ones whose insides have been blown out through a pin hole with the shell only surviving as a symbol. Symbol indeed! The symbol is a bright egg which is to be eaten and enjoyed, a well-cooked egg which is also a delight to the palate. April 23: Feast of Saint George Among saints honored in the month of April there is Saint George, of whom little is known, for all his popularity, except that he was born in Cappadocia, that he was a soldier and suffered martyrdom. The crusaders brought his fame to the West, where he is the patron of England, Aragon, Portugal, and certain sections of Germany. Before the Conquest many English churches had been named for him and the story of his brave deeds was sung everywhere. His best-known deed is legendary, but it was of course his slaying of the dragon, a feat he carried out in order to save a maiden who had been vowed to a monster. Saint George transfixed the dragon with a spear and then told the maiden to lead the monster about the city, after which he put an end to him. He was well known by that time as a man of God and a confessor of His works, and on that day, after witnessing the miraculous slaying of the dragon, twenty thousand people were converted to Christ. The king begged this wonderful dragon slayer to stay, "If you will remain with us you shall have the half of my kingdom." But Saint George refused the fine offer. "I must ride on," he said, "to take care of God's churches and honor the clergy and have pity on the poor." Saint George is especially honored in England as its great patron, and flags are still floated there on his feast; in other times the celebration was more elaborate and processions, jousts and races were held. The dishes served on this day should be without doubt favorites of that country such as roast beef and its famous accompaniment, Yorkshire pudding. Roast Beef Have the roast at room temperature about an hour before cooking. Season with salt and pepper and dredge with flour. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. and place the roast, fat side up, in a roasting pan. Should the roast be very lean, cover with a thin strip of suet or salt pork. Roast at this temperature allowing about eighteen minutes to the pound for rare, twenty-two minutes for medium, and thirty minutes for a well-done roast. If the roast has been boned and rolled, allow an additional five minutes per pound in the cooking time. Formerly the Yorkshire pudding was cooked in the same pan with the roast. But it is best to cook it in a separate pan since we now roast beef at a much slower temperature than formerly. Yorkshire Pudding 1 cup flour 1 cup milk 2 eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt Make a smooth batter of the flour, eggs, milk, and salt. Twenty minutes before the roast is done, remove from the pan and pour off half the grease for gravy. Pour the batter into the pan, place a wire rack over it, set the roast on the rack, and return it to the oven until the Yorkshire Pudding is well crisped around the edges. Cut into squares. Arrange the roast on a platter. Serve with gravy. There is an old rule that Worcestershire sauce should be added, 1 drop for chicken and veal, 3 for beef and lamb, 5 for pork. In Allier, a wine-growing "departement" of France, where the vineyards are objects of great solicitude, a curious custom is observed on Saint George's Day. If frost has not touched before that date the precious vines, a clean, soft little towel is offered to the statue of the saint and his feet are washed in wine amid cries of "Vive Monsieur Saint Georges." If harm has befallen the vineyards, however, Saint George is not so popular, and though his feet are still washed, a rough, coarse cloth is used. April 25: Feast of Saint Mark One other well-known saint of this month is Mark, a favorite disciple and companion of Saint Paul. He founded the first church in Alexandria and was slain by pagans of that city. For years his tomb was a shrine for the faithful but, according to tradition, in 815 a Venetian trader buying wares in Alexandria obtained the body of Saint Mark and brought it to Venice. And there it is today in the great cathedral in the city of which he is patron. On this day in Hungary people go in procession to have the fields of wheat blessed. And on the return home each carries a sprout of wheat, which has been blessed so that "fog shall not strangle, hail shall not destroy, storm shall not trample, fire shall not consume the only hope of the people." Since Saint Mark is so particularly honored in Venice, where the specialties are such seafood as sea trout, eels, sole, shrimp and sturgeon, we suggest an excellent Venetian fish sauce for this day. Venetian Sauce 1 tablespoon flour 1/2 cup fish stock 1/2 cup butter 1 tablespoon chopped 1/2 cup meat stock parsley pinch of white pepper Blend the flour in half the melted butter in a saucepan; add the meat and fish stocks, mixing well and cooking for about five minutes. Add pepper and the rest of the butter, beating constantly. When all is well mingled, add the parsley and serve with boiled fish. April 30: Saint Walburga's Eve The last day of April was first celebrated as a druidic feast of some importance in honor of spring's return, and bonfires were lighted to frighten away the spirits of darkness which might prevent the arrival of the joyous goddess of the springtide. For Christians it became the feast of Saint Walburga, the daughter of a Saxon king of the eighth century, who went to Germany at the call of her uncle, Saint Boniface, to aid in the work of evangelizing the Germanic tribes and remained to found and rule monasteries and convents. The Abbess of Heidenheim was given great veneration in the Low Countries and Germany during her lifetime and was honored after her death for her learning and the many miracles she wrought. But the observance of her feast, or rather its eve, "Walpurgisnacht," came to be held with many of the pagan traditions peculiar to the day, so that it grew to resemble the celebration of Halloween. At its best, it is the night when protection is invoked against murrains of fields and crops and the spirits of evil; at its worst, it is a night when witches ride and dark deeds are done. The original pagan feast, celebrated as the Eve of Beltane in the British Isles, was accompanied by lighting of new fires and feasting on certain foods retained by later customs in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. We are told that Beltane Cakes, large and scalloped, were set against hot stones to bake while a caudle (custard) was eaten, and beer and whiskey consumed. Many customs were connected with these cakes, among them that the person drawing a piece blackened by the fire became the "carline" who must be sacrificed to the fire. Later in Wales when cakes were cooked on ordinary stoves, light and dark oatmeal cakes were made, and the one who drew the dark cake was required to jump three times through the flames of the lighted bonfire. We have been unable to trace any authentic recipes for Beltane Cakes, and everyone knows how to make a custard or caudle. However, on this eve one might well anticipate the day to come by brewing the first "Maibowle." Maibowle Take 1 quart of strawberries, washed and hulled, sprinkle them with several tablespoons of powdered sugar, and steep them in 1 quart of good white wine. After three or four hours, place the berries and their liquor in a large punch bowl, place a large piece of ice in the center, and pour in 3 more bottles of white wine and 1 bottle of champagne. (The champagne can be replaced by soda water.) There are many classic and traditional "bowlen" in Germany, and peaches, pineapple, or "waldmeister" (woodruff) may be used instead of strawberries. Serve with a bit of the fruit in each punch glass. MAY May 1: May Day The first day of May has been for centuries a beloved holiday in England where "bringing in the May" has been sung by poets great and small. In France May is called "le mois de Marie," in honor of Our Lady; it is the month of First Communions, of solemn little boys in Sunday suits and little girls in white dresses and veils, all walking in procession to the churches. Yet, for all the devotions to Mary with which this month is filled not only in France but in many oth