Yup, that’s what I did when I realized I’d forgotten all about my Saturday ‘G’ post. It’s been a long time since I posted on Saturdays so I guess the reflex escaped me.
Plus, Easter is tomorrow so the kiddies had me waking up early so I could hit the ‘primeurs’ in search of white eggs. (White eggs are annoyingly difficult to find in France. They don’t sell them in regular grocery stores – except in the kosher section but more often than not, they’ve been bought up already.) The inlaws and friends are coming over for Easter dinner tomorrow so there’s shopping and preparations to be done for that too.
There’s no talk of the ‘Easter Bunny’ ‘round these parts. (except in our family, since I’m American.)
In France, it’s church bells who bring the eggs. You see, on Good Friday, all the church bells in France fly to Rome to be blessed by the pope. And on their way back early Sunday morning, they drop chocolate eggs into the kids’ gardens and homes. When they finally arrive back at their churches on Easter Sunday, all the bells in France sound off happily at the same time.
Now, I was born and raised Roman Catholic, and even I think that explanation’s a little lame. What the hell do church bells want with chocolate eggs?
Then again, Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail doesn’t make much sense either. However, I’m sticking with my American roots and the kids and I will be watching ‘HOP’ and coloring lots of stinky hard-boiled eggs for tomorrow’s festivitiesJ
What are your Easter traditions? I hope you all have a fantastic one!
*CQG*
21 comments:
Hmmm...I have to concur. What the hell do church bells want with chocolate eggs?! You're right, the rabbit doesn't make much sense either but he's so much cuter. :)
I'm late too. We love coloring the eggs - even my older kids. We spend hours doing it just for fun.
No Easter is complete in the Bird's Nest without 30 or so Italians in attendance, eating obscene amounts of food, usually playing a few board games, dying eggs, egg hunts and Easter baskets galore,(my little one still believes in the Easter bunny), then we take a long walk, so we can come back and eat some more food...people come early and leave my nest very late, but it's always a great time.
Hope you and your family enjoy your Easter!
being raised a protestant we went to church and then had Easter dinner but my mom also liked to make up Easter baskets for all us kids and do the egg hunt thing. Now that we're all grown up usually it's just a family dinner. I'm good with that :)
In the town where I live, on Good Friday, children under 12 go to the seafront and collect a hot cross bun, a creme egg and an orange! :D
We did what you're doing when my girls were younger. Colour the eggs, have an Easter Egg hunt, Easter baskets, etc. and an Easter dinner. Traditions are nice when there's lots of family around.
Originally I don't think all the eggs were chocolate (but the real ones, coloured). Since kids aren't that crazy about hardboiled eggs, we in the Americas gave in and substituted chocolate. That's my theory, anyway.
Hope your Easter is great! Did you find those white eggs?
In the Caribbean Easter marks the High Holidays. We celebrate the week before AND the week after. I do love it that from Thursday night (Holy Thursday) until Monday morning everything except the commercial enterprises from the States (of which there are few) are closed, even the US Post Office. I wonder if their Pres. knows about that. Ha.
Yes, it's easier believe the bunny poops chocolate eggs than bells. Yeah, that doesn't sound right either.
Happy Easter, Katie, and hope you find your white eggs.
Fun learning about traditions in other countries! Weird about the church bells :) We'll be dying eggs tonight, then I'll get up early and hide them, and my kids will be finding warm hard boiled eggs to put in a basket before they re hide them over and over (a bit icky now that I think about it). Thanks for the follow at Falling For Fiction and happy Easter :)
The bells are a lame explanation, but, oh, it's a rich, fun one. Hadn't a clue about all that. Big applause for you for keeping our traditions alive for the young ones so they can navigate both cultures without a problem. Happy Easter to you and yours!
I have a French friend - I must ivestigate these generous church bells further!
Good post on the hop!
I usually just keep a bit of candy around the house for Easter. No big dinners, no dying eggs, no visits to the petting zoo.
Life is much easier as a young married couple without kids.
Happy Easter! I'm celebrating Passover.
Glad (gasp!) you figured out a post in time.
The bunny thing never made a lot of sense to me, but bells??? Hmmm. Hope you all have a great Easter :)
The Easter bunny comes to our house on Saturdays so that the day of worship can stay as such. I got my kids all book lights in their baskets - they can't wait for it to be dark so they can read. It's a beautiful thing.
it's so interesting to read about how other countries celebrate various holidays.
Any extra Easter fun to be had has been had. The Chipmunk has enjoyed an Easter egg hunt for the day and tomorrow will be good church fun and relaxation the rest of the day...hopefully.
Those are some interesting church bells they have there in France. I guess we have interesting bunnies in the U.S.
Do all the bells ring at the same time? Really? For how long?
Church bells bringing eggs?
Never heard that one. ;-)
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We're doing the exact same here today: a frantic search for plastic eggs, followed by watching Hop, then church. We did the stinky egg thing yesterday. Do we have to eat them now?
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