Easter Traditions in France

The French are crazy about their Easter chocolates but it’s not the bunny who brings them.  Discover a few of the traditions of Easter in France.

Chocolate Bells

Chocolatiers (chocolate shops) all over France are selling chocolate fish, rabbits, eggs, and most definitely bells right now.  Raising my twin boys in France I try to share my American holiday traditions with them, so of course, this means the Easter Bunny comes Saturday night and hides eggs and Easter baskets.  Well in France there is no shortage of chocolate eggs to find on Easter morning but it is ringing church bells that bring the eggs.  Following Catholic tradition, church bells are not to be rung from Maundy Thursday until Easter morning (Sunday).  So, it is the ringing of the bells that delivers the chocolates and sweets.

Since Easter is a Christian holiday, it seems to make a lot more sense that church bells announcing the resurrection of Christ would bring the sweets.  So where did the idea of a bunny delivering eggs come from?  In ancient pagan times, the Germanic goddess of fertility and spring was called Eostre.  The rabbit was the traditional symbol of fertility.  It is believed in the case of the United States that it was German immigrants that arrived in the 1700s that lead to the bunny becoming the widely known symbol of Easter in the US.  Even in France, in the regions bordering Germany, they do use the rabbit as a symbol of Easter as well.

 When I stopped by Marly Chocolats & Macarons to buy a large chocolate bell, they told me that they were sold out of chocolate rabbits and that this year more than any other in the past people were asking for rabbits.   

The Bells of Notre Dame

Yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of the fire that ravaged Notre Dame.  I’m sure the images are still etched in your memory as they are mine.  We saw the smoke from our apartment building window and we simultaneously watched it live from our window and on television feeling extremely helpless and heartbroken.  The cathedral repairs are well underway as you can see from these pictures I took two weeks ago.  

Thankfully the bells survived the fire and are still hanging in the bell tower. We won’t hear the bells of Notre Dame ring again for a few more years but a really interesting fact is that each of the 10 bells has a name.  Do you know any of them?  Here is the list.

The North Tower houses:

Gabriel, in homage to the angel Gabriel of the Annunciation. The largest bell in the North Tower also bore this name in the 15th century.

Anne-Geneviève, in memory of Saint Anne, mother of Mary. And of Saint Geneviève, patron saint of Paris.

Denis, in honor of Saint Denis, first bishop of Paris.

Marcel, in honor of Saint Marcel, ninth bishop of Paris in the 5th century.

Étienne, in memory of the old cathedral church of Paris placed under the protection of Saint Etienne.

Benedict-Joseph, in remembrance of Benedict XVI, pope at the time of their consecration in 2013, during the 850th anniversary of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral.

Maurice, in memory of the bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully who laid the first stone of the cathedral in 1163.

Jean-Marie, in homage to Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger, 139th Archbishop of Paris, from 1981 to 2005.

The South Tower holds two bells.  

By far the most important bell in France is the Emmanuel bell.  It is the heaviest bell (more than 13,000 kg) and produces the lowest tone. Originally dating from the 15th century it was recast in 1681, upon the request of King Louis XIV, who named it the “Emmanuel” bell. This bell, considered one of the most beautiful in Europe, rings in F sharp. 

During the French Revolution in 1791 and 1792, all the bells, except for Emmanuel, were lowered, broken, and melted down for ammunition by the revolutionaries. In 1802, by order of Napoleon I, Emmanuel was replaced in its tower. The second bell in the South Tower is named Marie, whose first name pays homage to the mother of Christ, protector of Notre-Dame Cathedral, and memorializes the first bourdon Marie that was in place between 1378 and 1792. 

Photo credit: Lionel Allorge

The Emmanuel bell, in particular, has tolled to mark major events in the history of France such as the coronations of French kings, Papal visits, and to mark the end of major conflicts including World War I and World War II. It has also rung in somber times to unite the community, such as the funerals for French heads of state and tragedies such as the Twin Tower attacks on September 11, 2001.  It has been promised that the bells of Notre Dame will ring again on April 15, 2024.  I hope to be present there to hear that sound!

 https://www.friendsofnotredamedeparis.org

Easter Monday

Above when I wrote about finding chocolate eggs on Easter morning I specified Easter Sunday because in France Easter Monday is a national holiday. Schools are closed, no mail, work, etc. (although more and more grocery stores are staying open).  So why is this day so special? If you were to ask 10 French people, I don’t think one could give you the real reason but everyone is very happy to have Monday off!  To understand the start of the Easter Monday holiday, you have to go back to the Middle Ages. It was at this time that the eight days following Easter Sunday, then baptized "Easter Octave", were entirely national holidays. A week off with church masses celebrated every day and during which pilgrims had time to make the round trip to Rome.

But this holiday week disappeared in 1801 following the signing of the Concordat between the Pope and Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul. Only Easter Monday remains a public holiday, unfortunately just one day off and not a full week, but we’ll take it! 

 Whether you get will be getting up Sunday morning to see if the bunny or the bells brought you chocolates I hope you have a blessed spring day!

Joyeuses Pâques