Prost! It’s Epiphany!

Prost! It’s Epiphany, let’s drink to your health. You'd think that the time of good cheer, toasts and overindulgence would be over come January but in Bavaria where I spent Christmas today is a day to drink. ''Stärke antrinken'' (drinking for strength or power or for a healthy New Year) is celebrated on the 5th January (twelfth night) or on 6th. In many regions it’s time to drink specially brewed strong beer, (bock) although in our family my husband’s great grandmother always brought a jug brimming full of spiced, piping hot, mulled wine to give us strength for the following 12 months. 

Here’s a sketch of Vierzehnheiligen in Franconia just to get us into the mood, and a photo of our traditional red wine punch which we always make on New Year's Eve, something to warm the cockles of your heart! 

Made of two bottles of red wine, orange juice, lemon juice, the zest of oranges and lemons, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves; the mixture is poured into a glass bowl over a stove, then sugar loaf is placed on a spit above, drenched with 54% proof rum and set alight. Yummy. 

To be honest I could do with some of it right now, I am languishing on the couch with the dreaded lurgy; as a fan of Jane Austin I always associate being an ''invalid'' in the Georgian sense as being dressed in sprigged muslin or silks and draped swooningly on a divan while sipping on some strengthening port. Believe me this couldn’t be further from the truth. Dressed in grotty clothes, surrounded by used tissues, with unwashed hair and a dreeping nose, I have never looked less (or felt less) like one of Austin's heroines. 

Time to drink something strengthening I think, I got some fabulous craft beer for Christmas with about 9% proof, after all traditions have to be kept up so I don’t even have to feel guilty. Here’s to my ''strength''!