The Easter Bunny does not deliver eggs to children in France; that job belongs to the church bells. France is a predominately Catholic country. On Holy Thursday, the day before Good Friday, the bells in every church and cathedral across France stop ringing. It is said that the bells’ chimes, so sad over Jesus’ death on the cross, fly away to Rome to see the Pope. They return on Easter morning, joyously ringing in celebration of His resurrection. On the way back home, the bells drop Easter eggs for French children to find.
Here’s an original song in both French and English about the Easter Bells, sung to the tune of Jingle Bells.
Cloches de Pâques, cloches de Pâques
Bon voyage à Rome
Revenez et m’apportez
Des oeufs et des bonbons
Easter bells, Easter bells,
Fly away to Rome
Don’t forget the chocolate eggs
When you return back home
I’ve created some classroom resource packets for teaching French Easter customs to beginning French students:
French Easter Customs: Les Cloches Volantes – Flying Bells
French Easter Fun (secular worksheets & games)
Joyeuses Pâques! Happy Easter!
Photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=670715
Portions of this post were originally published for www.suite101.com
Hi, thx a lot, this was very helpful for our French project we are doing.
Could you send us the song, in english and french?
It would be even more helpful for our project.
Thx a lot!
bye
Nat and Liz
Merci Diane,
cute song and a useful way of explaining this tradition (that I love!) to my classes.
I think this site is very helpful for my French
Thanks SO much I really needed this for my freach homework !
My apologies on recording . . . I mispronounced “oeufs” . . . don’t say the “f”!
Hello !
The melody of the french song is the melody of Gingle Bells. A little weird…
Yes . . . I have to agree it’s weird! But it’s a fantastic memory aid for my students since it’s a familiar melody & brings to mind bells! Whatever works, right?