Ilcari naming cookies
In Ilcari tradition, children are believed to have been given a blessing by their ancestors before they're born. In order to find out which gift the child was given, they are named by chance in the hope that it will reflect the chld's gift and help them grow to embody that characteristic.
Traditional Ilcari names:
- Kindly
- Just
- Courageous
- Fleet-of-foot
- Clear-sighted
- Cool-headed
- Fortunate
- Steadfast
Preparation
The cookie dough is prepared in the early hours of the morning. Before being baked, each cookie is marked with a sign representing a potential virtue or blessing. The cookies' bake time is calculated so that they are removed from the oven at the crack of dawn - ritualistically making the child or children the first thing the family thinks about The cookies themselves are simple sugar cookies, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. In the north, the cookies tend to be flavoured with honey and decorated with geometric patterns in brightly colored sugar paste. In the south, the cookies are not traditionally iced (though the addition of sugar paste is becoming more popular), but the mix is often lightly spiced with cinnamon or ginger, and shaped into animals or religious figures, sometimes using a mould or stamp that is passed down within the family.Presentation
The cookies are presented to the child or children to be named, whereupon each child picks one and turns it over to reveal their name. by Charles Parker
Tradition
Traditionally, the cookies would be made at home by the maternal grandfather of the children. He would choose the names in the batch and (though such a practice would never be admitted) may decorate the cookies in such as way that he might influence which child picks which name. Bakeries, especially in urban areas, now offer premade boxes of naming cookies with professional decoration, allowing the children's names to be a suprise to the family. Professionally decorated cookies tend to be more ornate and influenced by the artwork of nearby Ophoné.Tourism
The colourful cookies are popular with tourists and personalised cookies are a common gift from the region by Nikolett Emmert
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