SOME BACKGROUND
The origin of crepes lie in what is known as the pancake. With its many forms, the pancake has transcended through history under a multitude of names but remains to be a thin, flat, cake-like substance made from batter whether sweetened, thick or thin.Crepes are most well-known as products of France, first emerging from Brittany, France and later became a national food. The etymology of the word "crêpe" comes from the Latin "crispus" meaning curled or wrinkled.
Moreso the crispy, rather than the wrinkly, crepes are made with a thin batter poured into a frying pan, griddle, and in our modern times a special crepe-maker.
TYPES OF CREPES
Crepes are usually seen as thin pancakes. In France, crepes can be served with fruit and nutella or even with meat and cheese.There are typically two types of French crepes. The gallette and the suzzette. The suzzette, or sweet crepes, are usually made from wheat flour and have sweet fillings. The gallette, or savory crepes, are made from buckwheat flour and are usually unsweetened.
OVER THE WORLD
Though commonly known as the crepe you will find its relatives under different names in other part of the world.
Greek: krepa
Italy: crespella
Dutch: pannenkoek
Albanian, Bosnian, Czech, Slovak, Slovene,Serbian: palačinka
Romanian: clătită
China: bing
India: dosai or uttapam
FETE DE LA CHANDELEUR
La Chandeleur or Candlemas is celebrated on February 2. It is a
holiday that used to predict the coming year's fortune with candles and
crepes. In Christian tradition, Candlemas was used to celebrate the day
Jesus Christ was taken to the temple. There he was proclaimed to be the
"light of the world". Candles are lit to honor this and it was also
believed that the light from the candles warded away evil. Marked 40
days after Jesus' birth is also foretold the end of winter, similar to
Groundhog Day in the United States which falls on the same day.
One tradition on Candlemas was to light a candle at your church, have it blest, and to make it home without it going out. Another was a requirement to eat crepes.To foretell the fortune for the coming year, people would make crepes in
their frying pans. Then while holding a coin in one hand they would
flip the crepe in the air. If it landed perfectly, prosperity would fall upon the tosser and his/her family.
A French rhyme was spoken on this day:
"Quand la Chandeleur est claire, l'hiver est par
derriere; Chandeleur couverte, quarante jours de perte!"
(If February 2 is clear, no more winter to fear; if the Chandeleur is overcast,
forty days winter to last).
