My Page About Easter In France.
by Delphine

Pâques en France.
         Allons en France!

The French word for Easter is Pâques.  To say Happy Easter you say Joyeuses Pâques or Bonnes Pâques.

If a baby is born around Easter-time, then the name chosen for the baby might be Pascal, meaning 'belonging to Easter'.  My little sister was born on Easter Day and that is why she is called Pascale! 

In preparation for the period of Easter, a special day is Mardi Gras.  It actually means 'fat Tuesday' and it is what is known as Shrove Tuesday in English. 
Why is it called 'fat Tuesday'?  Well - probably because it is the last day when you can eat everything you like before the fasting period of Lent (called Le Carême in French.)  Le Carême is another way of saying 'forty days' and these are the days leading up to Easter Day, when everyone must remember the death of Jesus and the events leading up to His death. 
On Mardi Gras, French people traditionally eat doughnuts called 'les beignets'  or pancakes called 'les crêpes.'

(Above - les beignets sprinkled with sugar.  You can eat them made with vegetables rather than sweet, if you prefer.)

Les beignets and les crêpes are the traditional food of Mardi Gras because they are a good way to use up all the extra flour, eggs and butter that should not be used during the fasting period of Le Carême.  In my family, we eat as many beignets as we can!  They are really yummy!  Miam-miam!

In the city of Nice, in southern France, there is a very famous carnival every year.  In fact, it is the oldest and the original Mardi Gras carnival of the whole world!  During the two weeks leading up to Mardi Gras, there are street parties, parades, shows, concerts, fireworks and general merry-making!  People wear fancy-dress.  The event attracts around 1.2 million visitors.  Each year, the Nice Mardi Gras carnival has a theme.  This year (2010) the theme is 'The King Of The Blue Planet.'

To visit the official site of Carnaval de Nice 2010
click HERE.

The day after Mardi Gras is Ash Wednesday and this is called le mercredi des Cendres in French.  It marks the beginning of Lent (Le Carême).

Now, I will tell you about Easter week.  This begins with
Palm Sunday: in French it is called le dimanche des Rameaux and it marks the beginning of Holy Week or La Semaine Sainte. 

During La Semaine Sainte, there are lots of processions and parades in the towns.  We call an Easter procession un défilé pascal.  We have the processions in order to remember the death of Jesus and the events leading up to His death.

'Les cloches volantes!'  The flying bells!
  Then, on the evening of Easter Thursday (le Jeudi Saint) something very strange and special happens!  All the church bells in France fly away to Rome! 
How do they do this?  Well, suddenly, wings appear on the bells.  Why do the bells do this? They do this so that they can visit the Pope (Le Pape) in the Vatican and be involved in remembering the death of Jesus and to be blessed by Le Pape. 
So,  all the church bells in France remain silent until the morning of Easter Sunday!

Then the bells fly back to France early in the morning of Easter Day!  This happy day is le dimanche de Pâques.  As the Easter bells (les cloches de Pâques) fly back, they drop chocolate eggs, bells and bunnies in the gardens of the French towns.  When the children wake up, they have great fun collecting the scattered goodies!  And all the bells ring again because they are celebrating The Resurrection of Jesus!

In some parts of France, children look for little chariots filled with eggs.  The chariots are pulled by white horses.

Another tradition on the Saturday evening, is for children to prepare nests in their gardens and houses.  These nests (les nids) are for the Easter bunny who will arrive during the night, bringing chocolate eggs.  Children leave carrots for the bunny.  He is called le lapin de Pâques or le lièvre de Pâques.
In the morning, on Easter Sunday, the children awake very excited because it is time to search for the chocolate eggs left in the nests by the Easter bunny!  This egg hunt is called La chasse aux œufs.

There is a traditional game on Easter Sunday.  Children throw raw eggs up in the air and catch them.  They keep doing this until someone drops one.  That person will be the loser!  So far, I have never been the loser.

There is something else that is very important in France at Easter.  It just so happens that April Fools Day, on 1st. April, occurs around the time of Easter.  In France, the tradition is that children play a trick on as many adults as possible by sticking paper fish onto their backs and running away.  We have a great day and every time that we manage to trick a grown-up, we run away shouting out 'Poisson d'avril!' - meaning 'April fish!'  And we are usually laughing lots too. 
C'est fantastique!

So, in France, April fish are also an Easter symbol and that is why you will find chocolate fish in the shops too! 

The shops where you buy the chocolate goodies are called les confiseries. You can also buy them in shops specialising in chocolate.  These special chocolate shops are called les chocolateries.  My favourite type of shop is 'la chocolaterie.'

The only other thing that I'd like to mention is Easter food in France.  Apart from all the chocolate, what do we eat?
Well, on Easter Friday (Le Vendredi Saint) in my family we do not eat meat.  You can only eat fish, vegetables, fruit and bread - in fact anything, as long as it doesn't contain meat.  All my friends do the same thing too.

On Easter Sunday, (le dimanche de Pâques), traditionally we eat roast lamb (l'agneau.)  There are lots of vegetables, for example, potatoes (les pommes de terre).
Roast pork (le porc) is also a popular choice for French families. We also have a cake called La Gâche de Pâques.  It is a very rich bread mixture, like a brioche - containing bread flour, sugar, milk, yeast, butter and eggs.

(Photo of une brioche, by Rainer Zenz)

There is generally an enormous amount of delicious food to eat.  We spend a lot of the day eating with the whole family altogether.  It is a very special and happy day.  Bon appétit!
On Easter Monday, (le lundi de Pâques), it is the tradition in my family to eat omelette.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my page about Easter.

Joyeuses Pâques!

Here is an Easter rhyme:

Aujourd'hui c'est Pâques
Toi mon petit lapin blanc
Qui galope dans les champs
Avec ton petit panier
Et tes petits souliers.
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