The Xicolatada is a traditional

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

celebrated in the village of

Palau-de-Cerdagne Palau-de-Cerdagne ( ca, Palau de Cerdanya) is a commune in the eastern Pyrenees (Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France). The people of the town celebrate the Xicolatada, every year, on the 16th of August. Geography Palau-de-C ...

Languedoc-Roussillon Languedoc-Roussillon (; oc, Lengadòc-Rosselhon ; ca, Llenguadoc-Rosselló) is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, it joined with the region of Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitania. It comprised five departments, and b ...

. It is celebrated yearly on 16 August, and has been for over 300 years. In

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...

, 15 August was once a festival day, and the locals would drink quite a bit, to the point that they felt a bit ill the following morning. To help them feel better, the village

chocolatier A chocolatier is a person or company who makes confectionery from chocolate. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other ingredients. Education and training Traditionally, chocolatiers, ...

would offer them a

hot chocolate Hot chocolate, also known as hot cocoa or drinking chocolate, is a heated drink consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and usually a sweetener like whipped cream or marshmallows. Hot chocolate ...

, which he claimed was an excellent remedy. Over the years, this habit grew into a custom, and eventually a municipal association was formed to remember the tradition and to organise the distribution of hot chocolate every year on 16 August, at precisely 11 in the morning. Today, the chocolate is brewed in large

cauldron A cauldron (or caldron) is a large pot ( kettle) for cooking or boiling over an open fire, with a lid and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger and/or integral handles or feet. There is a rich history of cauldron lore in religion, mythology, and ...

s over a wood fire. In 2007, 800 litres were consumed by 3000 people, many of whom were visitors; the festival draws many tourists to the village every year. To preserve the tradition, festival organisers have created a sort of confraternity called the ''Mestres xicolaters'', or "master chocolatiers", who keep the recipes for the chocolate secret; the organisation also handles scheduling, which it does not reveal in advance.

References

*''This article is based on a translation from the corresponding article in the

French Wikipedia The French Wikipedia (french: Wikipédia en français) is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has articl ...

Histoire de Roussillon
(in French) {{Chocolate beverages Catalan culture French culture Festivals in France Food and drink festivals in France Chocolate Chocolate drinks August events