In an email addressed to parents of schoolchildren, the City indicated that it wanted to celebrate this “pagan festival” with a back-to-school cake, omitting to mention the Three Wise Men according to the right-wing opposition, which denounces a “wokist rewriting”.
Enough to swallow the bean. While the famous galette des rois is still on the menu this week to celebrate Epiphany, the pastry offered by the Marseille town hall to its schoolchildren is causing a little controversy.
In an email addressed to parents of children attending the city’s 470 public schools, the town hall announced that it would distribute the galette des rois in school canteens on January 9 on the occasion of the traditional “greedy and friendly pagan festival”. Words which displeased the right-wing opposition group in the municipal council Une Volonté pour Marseille (UVPM), accusing the town hall of omitting the religious nature of the tradition.
“No, Benoît Payan, Epiphany is not a greedy pagan festival. On the contrary, it is the adoration by the Three Wise Men of the newly born Child Jesus. This wokist rewriting does not honor you…”tackled the political group on X. “We came forward to remind people that we must not erase these values, which are our Judeo-Christian roots”specifies at Figaro Catherine Pila, LR municipal councilor and president of UVPM.
A controversy that “does not exist”
“The reality is that we are babbling and we want to destroy these roots even though they are part of our history. It is a deconstruction of identity carried out by ideologues who have little to offer.says the elected official, referring to Benoît Payan’s majority.
-Contacted, the Marseille town hall brushed aside these accusations, assuring that it did not want “despise Christians” through this email, which announced the distribution of cakes to schoolchildren as it has been doing for four years. “We continued this tradition with a special menu. This has always existed, like at Easter or Christmas”details the municipality.
The latter is justified by explaining that the history of Epiphany dates back to “much further than Christians or Catholics”alluding to the pagan festival celebrated by the Romans in Antiquity. “We have no desire to erase a Christian holiday, it is a controversy that does not exist”estimates the town hall.
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