Easter Traditions in France
Les Traditions De Pâques
How is Easter celebrated in France and what are the Easter traditions that make "Pâques" (Easter in French) so special? Learn more about Easter food, the magic bells and what days are public holidays, together with what our family does at Easter time in France.
This important celebration and holiday on the French calendar is widely observed across the nation. Easter Good Friday commemorates Jesus Christ's crucifixion, Easter Sunday celebrates Jesus' resurrection, and the day after Easter Sunday is Easter Monday. This Monday is a public holiday in France.
France has some unusual Easter traditions that we'll take a better look at including magic flying bells, a disappearing bunny and a giant omelette.
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Let's start looking at Easter traditions in France. Firstly, the French word for Easter is “Pâques", so to wish someone a happy Easter we say "Joyeuses Pâques".
Public holidays and Easter in France
As briefly mentioned above, it is Easter Monday that is the public holiday in France. The French in the Middle ages dating back to the 11th century, used to have the whole of the Easter week (known as "Easter Octave") as a holiday to allow people to make the pilgrimage to Rome. Sadly though, in 1801 Napoleon Bonaparte decreed that only the Monday would be a public holiday. So unlike other Catholic countries that take Good Friday as a public holiday, French workers and students don't have the day off.
In saying that though, in true French tradition, there are exceptions to the rule! The regions of Alsace and Moselle are lucky enough to also get Good Friday as a public holiday. This is because of Alsace’s German heritage, as in Germany, Good Friday is usually a public holiday as well.
Easter Saturday and Sunday are quiet days in France with many people going away for the weekend. Public life is generally very quiet on Easter Sunday with banks, stores, post offices and other businesses closed. Many of these businesses would normally be closed on a Sunday in France, so this is not so much out of the ordinary.
However, if I compare Easter Sunday store closures in Australia, it is rather a big difference, as many stores and businesses would normally operate on a Sunday across Australia.
Village church in Côtes d'Armor
Church services
Churches in France are often open to the public throughout the year, but during Easter you may not be able to visit unless you are attending a service. There are usually no guided tours in cathedrals or churches over Easter.
Church bells stop ringing on the Thursday before Good Friday and do not ring again until Easter Sunday morning so churches are unusually quiet. Our church bells ring every hour on the hour, and at 7.00am and 7.00pm they also peel out an extra 100 chimes. We've been told by much older residents of our village that these 100 chimes were to help farm workers know when to start and finish their work day in the field long before watches and alarms. This century old tradition continues to this day, so when the bells stop ringing over Easter we really notice the silence.
Chapelle Sainte Anne des Rochers, Trégastel with bell
Easter Church bells
When the bells stop ringing on Thursday, legend says that the bells sprout wings and fly down to the Vatican to be blessed by the Pope. There the bells collect the Easter eggs, which then get scattered in gardens and yards on their return journey. So it isn't the Easter bunny who leaves all those delicious treats, it's the flying bells!
When the bells return on Sunday morning, they ring out in a loud, long celebratory manner during the Easter Sunday services. These are known as the Easter bells.
Easter eggs for children
The flying bells bring us to easter eggs and easter egg hunts. The egg hunt is “la chasse aux oeufs,” in French. Egg hunts are similar around the world where hidden eggs (usually hidden by parents), are left for children to run around and find. In France, many towns organise for an easter egg hunt in a nearby park for residents and their Easter weekend visitors.
You'll find the notices for these hunts are often posted in village Tabacs or, in larger towns, on the notice board of the Mairie (Town Hall). Our village doesn't have a hunt as it's so tiny, but larger towns nearby hold Easter hunts and festivities that we've joined in on before. The hunts are clever because plastic eggs are hidden across parks and gardens and the children take these plastic ones and exchange them for chocolate ones to take home.
These fun outdoor hunts and communal activities are popular and are often extended with walks and picnics to enjoy the Spring weather.
Sometimes I decorate our French dining table with chocolate eggs in antique silver egg cups
More Easter egg activities
Another French custom is a contest of rolling raw eggs down a gentle slope with children cheering their own egg on. The victorious child has the first surviving egg. It's believed that the surviving egg symbolised the stone that was rolled away from Christ’s tomb.
A more messy kids activity is where they throw eggs in the air then catch them as they fall. You guessed it, the first one to drop theirs is the loser who must pay a penalty, and likely also wear egg yolk over themselves! This game can be extended until there is only one player - who hopefully has kept themselves clean of squashed egg.
Family get togethers
Families get together during Easter with lots of people attending mass on Easter Sunday and then partaking in a large traditional long lunch afterwards. You've probably read about the love affair between the French and their food. Well, it's very true, and Easter Sunday is one of those days when this love affair is seen in full swing!
Easter lunch with roast lamb and vegetables
French Easter lunch menu
Typical dishes on the Easter menu include roasted lamb or pork loin with seasonal spring vegetables from local markets, or freshly harvested produce home-grown in potagers.
For Easter dessert, a bûche de pâques or chocolate log cake is often served, similar to the traditional dessert that is served at a French Christmas dinner. Macarons are often our choice for Easter dessert, or nest cakes with candied eggs and little chicken decorations.
Omelettes are also popular, and a bit further on in this post, I explain what the connection is between omelettes and Easter.
The Giant Omelette Easter Tradition
Now lets look at the connection between omelettes and Easter. First let me say that France does food festivals like no other country. The nation celebrates everything from lemons in Menton (Fête du Citron), to the pink onions of Roscoff to the release of new Beaujolais, and even to the tiny edible violet flower in Toulouse (Fête de la Violette). So it's no surprise that there'd be a festival to celebrate eggs and omelettes, and would you believe it - it's held at Easter time!
The Giant Omelette Festival (Fête de l’Omelette Géante) is held in the town of Bessières each Easter over three days. The event combines dinners, Easter egg hunts, parades and performances. On the final day, Easter Monday, a giant omelette is cooked in the centre of town that is large enough to feed around 2,000 locals and tourists. In recent years it's been recorded that around 15,000 eggs were used - that's one huge omelette! To help with all the preparation, hundreds of volunteers get together to crack all the eggs into large bowls.
What's the reasoning behind a giant omelette being cooked in a French town centre and shared with a large group of people? Legend has it that when Napoleon and his army were traveling through the south of France, they stopped in a small town and ate omelettes. Napoleon liked his so much that he ordered the townspeople to gather their eggs and make a giant omelet for his army the next day.
Let's look at what everyday life looks like over the Easter weekend for our family. I'll share the differences we experience between Easter in France and Australia.
Easter in Australia for our family
Firstly the seasons are opposite with Australia launching into autumn (fall), and its typically cooler weather. The change in temperature with fall is much welcomed. After months of sweltering heat and humidity, the cooler day temperatures and evening breezes bring a refreshing energy. With an increased spring in our step, we can tackle gardening and outdoor maintenance without melting in the heat and getting sunburnt. Australia isn't called the "sunburnt country" for nothing with summer experiencing average temps over 30xx.
The change in the weather and a long public holiday weekend (we have four days) sees camping and caravanning activity spike. Traffic jams on major roads is almost mandatory with the exodus out of cities, and last minute shopping for food and camping supplies is just about compulsory. I'm not a camping or caravanning girl but many of my friends are and I enjoy seeing their photos of outback Oz and the Aussie bushland.
If you are staying home in Australia over Easter, then spending time in the garden is probably high on your activity list. This brings a rush to garden nurseries and hardware stores for tools, plants and fresh garden furniture. You can even experience full carparks and slight traffic jams getting into our local Bunnings Hardware store.
Staying at home over Easter we usually invite guests for a long lunch on Saturday. We prepare a themed table-scape and I cook loads of dishes to eat in the cooler weather on our deck overlooking Lake Macquarie. Relaxing while watching ducks swim past and seagulls and pelicans dive for their fishy dinner in the lake over aperitifs French martinis and Kir Royale (our go-to drinks), we give thanks for our home, good friends and family.
Easter cakes at Langueux and Châtelaudren
Easter for our family in France
Food is an integral part of Easter for our family when in France also. Only it's more on the sweet and sugary side of the dietary wheel. With so many incredible cakes and intricate chocolate creations, it's even more impossible to resist numerous trips to the boulangerie, and coming home with cake boxes prettily wrapped with ribbons and bows.
A warm home cooked meal is traditional and a family walk around our village lake helps settle our full bellies.
With spring officially sprung at Easter, a trip to the garden centre is usual for us, but with a much smaller garden, we don't have the same workload. Wandering the plant department at spring is an experience not to be missed. Even if you are only on holidays, I recommend popping into a shopping centre and taking a quick wander through the garden centre. The happiness you'll feel looking at all the abundant plant choices and their bursting rainbow colour is almost palpable.
Useful French vocabulary for Easter
Easter = Pâques
Happy Easter = Joyeuses Pâques
Good Friday = Vendredi saint
Easter Monday = Lundi de Pâques
Easter traditions = les traditions de Pâques
Easter bunny = le lapin de Pâques
Easter bells = les cloches de Pâques
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