The 13 Desserts of the Provencal Christmas Eve Dinner
I’ve long been intrigued by different customs surrounding the holidays, and I am especially fond of the traditional Provencal Christmas Eve dinners of Southern France. The main meal consists of seven savory dishes, representing the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary. The dinner concludes with 13 different desserts, symbolizing the last supper when Christ dined with his 12 apostles.
The composition of the main meal and the desserts varies slightly from village to village, and from region to region, but always the meal is meatless, made up of fish and vegetable dishes, and at least 12 of the desserts must be composed of produits de terroir, such as locally grown fruits and nuts, olive oil and honey, while the 13th can be something exotic, such as a date or an orange.
The preparation for the meal each year begins weeks before, when on December 4 (the Feast of Sainte Barbara) three shallow dishes are planted with wheat seeds that symbolize the promise of a good harvest for the coming year.
The table for the Christmas Eve dinner, the gros souper, is set with three white tablecloths overlapping each other to represent the holy trinity, and decorated with the dishes of sprouted wheat seed, now bright green, and three candlesticks holding white candles. Pine cones and moss gathered from the forest complete the wintery scene.
The seven savory dishes are served to guests before midnight mass. Typical dishes include brandade de morue, or salt cod, and various vegetable dishes such as celery with anchovy sauce, and gratins made of cardoon, spinach and chard stalks.
After mass, guests return for dessert. In the simplest version, the 13 Desserts are served unadorned. Almonds, walnuts, figs and raisins, called the quatre mendiants, the four beggars, are offered. These represent the four religious orders vowed to poverty, and the colors of the nuts and fruits symbolize the color of the monks’ robes: almonds for the Carmelites, walnuts or hazelnuts for the Augustines, figs for the Franciscans and raisins for the Dominicans.
Nuts are also used, alongside honey, to make the traditional black and white nougats. Other elements include fresh fruits like apples and oranges, or the more rare green melon (certain types are winter-keepers). Dates, dried prunes and quince paste, plus sweet biscuits and fougasse (bread made with olive oil) make up the remainder of the desserts.
For the less tradition-bound, or perhaps just the more ambitious, these classic ingredients are elevated into tarts or ice creams, or wrapped in cognac-soaked crepes.
The meal and 13 Desserts are accompanied by local wines and sweet vin cuit, a traditional Provencal dessert wine made with grape must that is cooked in a cauldron over an open fire then fermented before aging in oak barrels.
In times mostly past, everything for the 13 Desserts was procured locally and made at home. Today, patisseries and market vendors throughout the region have large displays of nougats of all kinds and colors, and boulangeries produce special holiday fougasse and sweet biscuits during the holiday season. The religious significance of the 13 Desserts has also largely waned, but the cultural importance endures.
