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Published 2014
Rena Salaman (1993a) quotes from
On the same night, too [New Year’s Eve] takes place the ceremony of cutting ‘St Basil’s Cake’—a large circular mass of brioche with almonds and walnuts upon it, which is solemnly cut open, shortly before midnight, by the head of the house. Sometimes a franc or a gold piece is put into the cake, and the person receiving the piece which contains the coin, is supposed to be going to have a lucky year. In the country, after cutting the cake, a fine pomegranate is thrown violently on the ground, so as to scatter the seeds.