Joyeuses Pâques! Happy Easter!

Monique has been on her Easter Egg hunt (la chasse aux oeufs) this morning and found lots of chocolate eggs (les oeufs en chocolat).

Hope everyone has a fun day today and if you wish to know more about how children celebrate Easter in French, keep reading! 🐣🇫🇷

“Pâques” (Easter in French) is an important holiday in France: a religious one of course, but also a traditional gathering for families, religious or not. Children go egg hunting but their egg providers are a bit different: magic bells!!

The Catholic tradition dictates that Church bells don’t ring between Good Friday “Vendredi Saint” and Easter Sunday. The oral tradition then said that the bells were flying to Rome during that time to be blessed by the Pope, and then come back from this trip loaded with presents.

The bells randomly drop these treats for the great joy of children.

When children go on their Easter egg hunt, someone usually shouts “les cloches sont passées” and all the children run outside to collect their eggs.

In the old days, the eggs were real eggs, boiled and then decorated by children. By the way, “un oeuf” is pronounced like “un neuf”. “Des oeufs” is pronounced like “dé zeu”(final F and S silent).