Two little cultural lessons

Turns out that for Easter in France, sure, there's the Lapin de Pâques (the Easter Bunny). But there's also the Cloches de Pâques, the Easter Bells. Wait for it...

...they have wings and they fly to France from Rome, bringing candy for all the children.

I kid you not.

This site explains it this way:

"Les cloches volantes nous semblent bizarres, mais il existe une logique à cette idée. Au 7ème siècle, l'Église Catholique a interdit la sonnerie des cloches de Vendredi Saint à Pâques. Une histoire s'est développée pour expliquer la disparition des cloches aux enfants. Dans l'histoire les cloches partent de France pour le Vatican. Avec des ailes et des rubans, elles volent jusqu'au pape. Comme elles partent avec la tristesse de la mort de Jésus, elles reviennent en France avec la bonne humeur-et des bonbons qu'elles déposent dans des jardins pour que les enfants les trouvent."

"The flying bells seem bizarre to us, but there is a logic to this idea. In the seventh century, the Catholic Church forbade the ringing of bells on Good Friday. A story was developed to explain the disappearance of the bells to children. In the story, the bells leave France for the Vatican. With wings and ribbons, they fly to the Pope. While they leave with sadness over the death of Jesus, they return to France with joy -- and candy that they distribute in the gardens for the children to find."

Another imaginary creature that they have is "la petite souris," 'the little mouse,' who is their version of the tooth fairy. JD (the font of all this information, natch) found a marvelous children's book scanned in online that explains about the mice who take children's teeth and leave money. I was surprised that the little mouse on the cover is dressed roughly like a plumber. JD suggested that it might be because a filling in French is a "plombage."

Man. I still can't get over those flying bells. I'm going to have weird dreams tonight.