Christmas in Provence: Saint Barbara’s day wheat
Like you, we are all getting ready for Christmas so we’d like to share a few of our Provençal traditions with you.
Everything started yesterday for us, the 4th December, Saint Barbara’s day.
The tradition is called "Saint Barbara’s day wheat": we sow wheat in a saucer lined with wet cotton wool. The wheat will germinate and grow lovely and green just in time to decorate the Christmas dinner table, bringing prosperity to the whole house (for farmers, it means that the wheat harvest will be a good one).
Besides, as our ancestors used to say in Provençal: "Quand lou blad vèn bèn, tout vèn bèn !": If the wheat goes well, everything goes well!