Les Cloches des Pâques! The French tradition involves a story of the church bells going silent as they have flown to Rome to mourn the death of Jesus from the end of Jeudi Saint until Pâques. Then they fly back dropping chocolate, candy and gifts pour les enfants!
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles episode 31
Guest: Sarah Zwick
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France has many wonderful traditions. I am joined in this episode by our favourite French correspondent Sarah Zwick from Be My Guest Immersions in the Pays-Basque region of South West France. Sarah spends her time talking about France and connecting with francophiles every day through her online French classes. I can personally recommend her as a current French speaking teacher who is amazingly dedicated to her students! Including me!
Back to the traditions…
Easter in France is called Pâques. The French word Pâques comes from the Latin word “pascha”, meaning “Passover”, which comes from the Hebrew “Pesah” which is the Jewish name for the Passover celebration, that is celebrated on Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter Sunday. So Easter en français is Pâques!
France has a strong Catholic history and Easter is celebrated avec grand enthusiasm! Some traditions are particular to France and even to various regions.
- La Chasse aux Oeufs de Pâques (Easter Egg Hunt)
- Les Cloches des Pâques (Flying Easter Bells)
- Easter Bunny
Bayonne ham is a specialty in South West France. 1462 was the first year of the Foire au Jambon held near Bayonne in the Pay-Basque region near the Spanish border. Malheureusement it was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 has been postponed to later in the year due to COVID, the first time it has ever not been held in spring since it commenced. During the Pâques period, the festival would showcase local producers and they would offer their ham to be sampled and a vote would take place. Fingers crossed this will be back on track for 2022!
Easter occurs in the spring in France and the spring holidays – vacances des printemps – are synonymous with Pâques.
Recette
Marmiton is a website (en français!) avec thousands of recipes and ideas for your repas de Pâques!
Musique
As Pâques is in spring/printemps, that is the theme for the music of the holiday!
Y’a d’la joie – Charles Trenet
Printemps – Coeur de Pirate
