King Cake Snark

So, the other day someone on FSU decided to post a picture of a plain King Cake a traditional Catholic made without toppings.

I hate to pull asablackman, but as a lapsed Catholic I can say TradCaths are the worst and can never say a sentence without screeching heresy to protestants and ending wirh high key antisemitism. However, there was nothing hateful in the shot.

Just a plain looking Louisiana style King Cake with misinformation it should be decorated but wasn't.

... FSU mocked the cake's appearance and how dare the TradCath didn't know traditional King Cake!? It's for Fat Tuesday how dare it be bland!! Didn't they know that Catholics love color!? Don't they know Catholic tradition!? Lol!!

So... uh. The King Cake tradition is based on the feast called Epiphany on Jan 6th. In Catholic liturgy, the Three Wise Men (Kings) came to adorn Christ as the Messiah. In Europe the cake was eaten until the season of Lent, when fasting began.

The cakes themselves varied from region to region in the middle ages, though it was mostly French/Flemish in origin. The cakes were usually unadorned. When French settlers came to the Americas they brought the tradition with them to Canada and then the exodus to Louisiana. The New Orleans King Cake in modern times were decorated purple, green, and gold sugar with a yeast based cake rather than the French traditional custard pastry and now associated with Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday.

As for Catholics and color, they have associations and Mardi Gras colors are not associated with traditional Catholic symbolism. Gold is not worn by priests, green is the non holiday seasons (ordinary time), and purple is worn in lent as a color of sacrifice.

Why did I rant about this? Because most of the posters were just as ignorant about Catholic traditions as the 'TradCath'. They were using their ignorant opinions to disguise appearance snark and the Americana focused nature of it all annoyed me.