The goose will be fat, if he eats all this chocolate Buche de Noël ! One of the joys of Christmas in France .... which does not mean that I have forgotten to eat British Christmas Pudding. And making Mince Pies with my grand daughter is also part of the Christmas ritual. Humans need rituals ! In our retirement in Brittany, we maintain certain Frenglish rituals. Our Christmas begins with Emmy's birthday (this week she turned 7); carol singing with good English pronunciation of children in the local schools (Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree, We Wish You A Merry Christmas); playing Father Christmas at the local retirement home ("Vous avec été SAGE, Madame?") and then Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Catherine Leïla's birthday ..... before she and Emmy take off for wherever (currently they live in Nairobi).
The human love of ritual explains why all Scottish and Highland Balls start with the Grand March: a harmless and amusing ritual, which (when I was young) used to be the way in which sets were formed for the first dance. At the end of the Grand March, you are in a line of eight people, and these will form the members of the set for the first dance (whatever dance that may be).
These days my caring responsibilities at home mean that I cannot attend many Balls, but I still dance every week in Lannion, and I teach dance in Pordic, where I live, twice a month on Sundays: once I teach RSCDS dancing to Bretons who are also Scottish dancers, and on the last Sunday of each month I animate Ceilidh dancing for anyone and everyone. It keeps me fit and healthy.
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