Jewels
When Spring is in
the air, but not quite arrived,
when the King’s Cake is naught but crumbs,
after Endymion and Rex
have strutted their stuff,
we will endure
the fuzziest examinations of ourselves,
the day after we have hoarded
all those bejeweled singing strings
and rolling doubloons, but
in the meantime,
let the good times roll!!
The "king's cake" takes its name from the biblical kings (the Magi) who attended the birth of Jesus on the Epiphany (6 January). The 12 days of Christmas are from Christmas Eve to the night before Epiphany; the season for king's cake is either associated with Epiphany itself or extends from Epiphany to the end of Shrovetide (the period before Lent) and ends on Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras). The cake tradition is about 300 years old but varies from locale to locale. In the southeastern US, especially along the Gulf Coast, the cake has a trinket inside and is decorated in the colors of Mardi Gras (purple for justice, green for faith, gold for power) established in 1872 by the Krewe of Rex. (Krewes are social organizations that organize Carnival balls and parades; Rex [Latin for "king"] was organized that year in honor of the visit by Russian grand duke Alexei Alexandrovich; the Krewe of Endymion was not formed until 1967 but became one of the most prominent in 1974 and hosts the gigantic Samedi Gras block party. Endymion was a king, shepherd, or hunter who was loved by Selene the moon who had him put into an eternal sleep so that his features would never change. Selene visited him every night and bore 50 daughters by him, as well as Narcissus.)
ReplyDeleteThe doblón ("double") was a 2-escudo Spanish coin that was also minted in its South American colonies and was widely circulated throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia; Spanish money remained legal tender in the US until 1857.