La Chandeleur in French Class: Celebrate Crêpe Day on February 2

Le Jour des Crêpes: A French Cultural Tradition

On February 2, celebrate La Chandeleur with your French students by discovering one of France’s most beloved traditions: making and sharing crêpes.

Our student interns, Curtis and Julia, from Lycée La Salle Saint-Charles (La Réunion) created the video below to introduce your French students to La Chandeleur and demonstrate how to make crêpes while explaining the cultural traditions associated with the holiday.

Students introduce La Chandeleur in French

What Is La Chandeleur? French Cultural History and Traditions

La Chandeleur¹ takes place 40 days after Christmas, at a transitional moment between winter and spring. Originally a Christian feast, La Chandeleur later evolved to include food traditions that blend religious meaning with seasonal symbolism — especially the return of light and longer days. The name Chandeleur comes from chandelle (candle), referring to the traditional blessing of candles on this day.

Families traditionally used leftover wheat from the previous year’s harvest to make crêpes. Successfully making crêpes on La Chandeleur was believed to signal a good harvest and financial stability for the year ahead.

The round, golden shape of the crêpe is often associated with the sun, light, and the return of longer days after winter.

A well-known tradition associated with luck and prosperity involves holding a coin in the left hand while flipping the crêpe with the right. If the crêpe lands neatly back in the pan, it is believed to bring good luck and prosperity to the household for the year.

Traditional French Crêpe Recipe

Ingredients:

To make delicious crêpes as shown in the video, you will need the following ingredients:

• 400g flour
• 80cl milk
• 70g butter
• 4 eggs
• 50g sugar
• 1 pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Pour the flour into the bowl and add a pinch of salt
2. Add the eggs and sugar, then mix
3. Melt the butter and add it to the batter
4. Mix until the batter is smooth and free of lumps
5. Heat the pan and lightly oil it
6. Pour a ladle of batter into the pan
7. Tilt the pan to form a round crêpe
8. Flip the crêpe and cook the other side

Take your students to the birthplace of crêpes on our Tour of Paris, Brittany & Normandy!

Sources

1. Ministère de l’Agriculture — Il est l’heure… de la Chandeleur –https://agriculture.gouv.fr/il-est-lheure-de-la-chandeleur ↩︎