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Cake Day: you may not recognise the name, you may not even realise it is an event, but Cake Day has been celebrated on Avondale College's Lake Macquarie campus for the past four years.

Cake Day is an annual celebration commemorating the beheading of French queen Marie Antoinette in 1793. When told the French people did not have bread, she is alleged to have replied, "Then let them eat cake." The quote became a symbol of how out of touch royalty were to the plight of their commoners.

Founded by arts and teaching major Andrew Taylor and graduates Lachlan and Clansi Rogers and Casey Walker, Cake Day reminds students of the importance of history, of the need to question the establishment and to eat cake, of course.
It coincides with World Food Day (October 16), which the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations established in 1979 to raise awareness of hunger and poverty.

"We never intended for Cake Day to coincide with World Food Day," says Andrew. "Perhaps the UN knows something about it." Clansi notes the coincidence adds more meaning to Cake Day. "Hunger and poverty are serious issues, and we hope to raise awareness of the oppressed today by remembering the past."

While Marie Antoinette probably did not tell her subjects to "eat cake," "we must never turn a blind eye to the fate of those who face disease, hunger and poverty, simply because of where they were born," says Clansi.
Twenty students celebrated Cake Day in the traditional location--the Watson Hall foyer--this year. Former student Becky Dewey (Florence, Italy) and graduate Andrew Harris (Lismore), along with Lachlan and Clansi (Canberra) and Casey (Gold Coast), joined them in spirit.

Cake Day is catching on. Will it catch you?

Caption: Clansi and Lachlan Rogers celebrate Cake Day at Parliament House in Canberra.
Credit: Lachlan Rogers

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