"A soul cake, a soul cake" is the refrain that has been going through my head all day. It started when I visited the D.C. Holiday market where a banjo player sang the old British number, right after "Frosty the Snowman."
Turns out it's a song sung on Halloween or All Saints' Day. But since I'd never heard it before and may never hear it again, I will forever associate it with December, the holiday season and the holiday market.
View the video below at your peril! You might be humming it all day long as well. Just in case, I included the lyrics after the video. I took it at F and Seventh streets in D.C., across the street from the Spy Museum, where the holiday market was set up until yesterday.
Happy holidays. Peace.
Soul cakes lyrics:
A soul, a soul, a soul cake.
Please god missus a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry,
Any good thing to make us merry.
Up with your kettles and down with your pans
Give us an answer and we'll be gone
Little Jack, Jack sat on his gate
Crying for butter to butter his cake
One for St Peter, two for St Paul,
Three for the man who made us all.
A little history, and a recipe, can be found here.
"Travel" will return with the next entry.
Video: By Ellen Perlman
Boldly Go Solo 
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