Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic doctrine that the Virgin Mary was preserved by God from the transmission of original sin at the time of her own conception. It is not, as is commonly believed, another name for the doctrine of the virgin birth – it refers to how Mary, not Jesus, was conceived ...

In her aspect of the Immaculate Conception, Mary may be depicted assuming an almost astrological figure, standing on the moon, crushing the serpent (Satan) under her foot, with the sun behind her, sometimes her head circled with the twelve stars of the Apocalypse ...

Alan Davidson (Oxford Companion to Food, Oxford University Press, 1999) tells us that on this day in Madeira, Portugal, women begin to bake the bolo de mel cake which is served at Christmas time. This cake, sweetened with honey or molasses, contains walnuts, almonds and candied peel. Traditionally, the Madeirans leaven the cake with a piece of dough from bread-baking; any honey cakes left from the previous year must be eaten up on this day ...

Categories: religion, christianity, saint, calendar-customs, portugal