I, God Saturn

Milouin invites the new protagonist of your “Me, product” section. A playful text in which a product or a living material is told in the first person in an impertinent, funny and poetic tone. Me, product.

If people refer to me during this festive period, it is not to recall that I am an ancient divinity from Roman mythology, but above all to underline that I am, in a way, at the origin of a of the most awaited delicacies of the beginning of the year.

Sleeping God the rest of the time, it was when the period of the winter solstice arrived, when the sun is farthest from the Earth, that I was most talked about. I am known as the god of agriculture, but I was above all represented as a founding and civilizing king through my peaceful reign where my subjects were governed with fairness and gentleness. This is called "the reign of Saturn" or more humbly "the golden age". And to celebrate this unconstrained era and its creator, Saturnalia was born.

Taking place between the end of December and the beginning of January, these are festivals during which there were no longer any social barriers between slaves and masters. Popular festivities where gifts and meals were exchanged, and in particular delicious pancakes in which was hidden a real bean so that a slave was designated king for a day.

The Galette des Rois (as called in the North) or Kings Cake (in the South) has become a real tradition, which has seen, over time, its custom of the bean evolve... It would even seem that for a time, whoever fell on the fève preferred to swallow the nugget, rather than having to spend a penny to pay for his rounds… This is where the porcelain fève was born!

So all you have to do is taste as many slices of the galette as you want in order to be, like me, crowned king.

Text: Sonia Ben Abdeslem
Illustration: Pascal Drai