Twelfth Night
Dear Soyoung,
I hope you are spending a little bit of your weekend preparing a list of questions for me. I’m looking forward to reading them.
Here, it is Twelfth Night, the twelfth night after Christmas, when all the Christmas decorations must be taken down and put away. There are some ancient traditions for Twelfth Night. One of them is burning holly and ivy. Another – one which I like more – is eating Twelfth Night cake.
Twelfth Night cake is made to a Medievalrecipe using sultanas, dried fruit, fruit peel, almonds, marzipan, sugar, butter, eggs and wheat flour. I am quite a good cook (well, not bad, anyway), but I don’t bake. So Lucy and I bought a small Twelfth Night cake, which we opened and ate with strong coffee this morning.
The tradition is that a small bean was hidden inside the Twelfth Night Cake mixture. Whoever found the bean when the cake was baked and served became The Bean King for a day of dancing, singing, eating and drinking. The cake Lucy and I bought had a small chocolate bean wrapped in silver paper, and a cardboard crown around the cake. She got the chocolate bean, of course. I got the cardboard crown. Great, eh?. I’m afraid there was no singing or dancing in our house this morning either, but Lucy is going to a party tonight so I’m sure she’ll do all the dancing and singing and eating and drinking she needs.
Have a good day!
With very best wishes,
STEPHEN
SOME USEFUL WORDS
holly
a small evergreen tree, with prickly leaves and red berries, which is used as decoration in Britain at Christmas
ivy
a plant which grows up walls and trees
Medieval
from a time, in European history, between the end of the Roman Empire (476 AD) and the beginning of the Renaissance (1500 AD)
recipe
a list of ingredients and a set of instructions telling you how to cook something
Lucy has already eaten the chocolate
‘bean’, and I refuse to be photographed
wearing a cardboard crown!
Find translations in a good dictionary for each of these ingredients:
sultanas
dried fruit
fruit peel
almonds
marzipan
wheat flour
If you have time, use a good dictionary to help you understand the differences between these verbs:
to bake
to boil
to cook
to fry
to grill
to poach
to simmer
to steam
Comments
Dear Stephen, The Twelfth Night cake looks moreish! Here in Brazil is the day for taking down the Christmas decorations too. Here we have some traditions for this day as well. Some people eat a pomegranate and afterwards wrap seven seeds of the fruit with a piece of paper, and then keep it into the wallet to make sure that there will be money enough for all over the year. Have a good weekend! Best wishes, Luciana
Dear Stephen! I haven' heard about the tradition of Twelfth Night.What a coinsidence - I took down the Christmas decoration this evening.Some kind of sixth sense?!I also had a nice idea to bake a cake today but I decided that we ate too much sweets during the holiday.So it is better to keep on a diet.;-) Your cake seems to me tasty and morish. Have a nice Sunday!
Hey! The Twelfth Night cake sounds very similar to what people in Mexico know as "La Rosca de Reyes"( The Kings' Cake). In Mexico instead of hiding a small bean a small children, made of plastic, is hidden. Whoever found the small children has to provide food for a party which is celebrated on February the 2nd.
Hi, professor. This is the first time that I am accessing both the teacher and the student blogs and I would like to say that a good way to improrve English. You give us many valuable tips to us. Congratulations!
Hi Stephen, Still you are in the celebration mood. We are also celebrating Epi Phony of the Lord, the feast of the three kings offering gift to infant Jesus. Usually it comes in the second Sunday after Christmas. Is it the same feast on twelfth night? Actually this is the day we remove all our decoration, the children are very eager to remove all those materials and keep them safely as they do it before Christmas. They will open it only next Christmas. The twelfth night cake you have bought seems to be very delicious and you got a gift also. We know that you are very good cook why didn’t you prepare this cake on your own?
Hi Stephen, as we are now focusing on our interests I would like to let you know about an amazing performance broadcast by BBC Prime on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 - 'Flashmob - the Opera’. I think you missed it as you were at that moment in Paris but I’m sure you’d love it. Just imagine: the most beautiful arias from such operas as ‘Traviata’, ‘Madame Butterfly’, ‘Don Giovanni’ sang at ..... Paddington Station in London. A story of Sally and Mike, contemporary Orpheus and Eurydice, took place at almost all parts of the station: at platforms, moving stairs, and even at the sushi bar. The soloists and the choirs (professional and amateur ones) were mingled with the passenger crowd so it was a fun to see amusement or even shock in eyes of those who suddenly realized what was going on at the Paddington station. And that really made them get involved, especially that they could also join some of the choirs. What’s more, they seemed to really care about the Sally’s and Mike’s love, and they actually were urged to support them by an providential angel who’s job was to rejoin the lovers. To sum up: a great surprise for those who see opera as an artificial art and a wonderful experience for all of us. As an English learner I was delighted to follow the subtitles. Best,
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