During Holy Week, the children learnt about 'The legend of the Easter Bells' (La légende des cloches de Pâques) in KS1 & KS2 French lessons.
With the majority of French being
Roman-Catholic, it's not surprising that even the smallest villages have a
church. Most churches have a bell, which is joyfully rung to celebrate
important occasions throughout the year.
“Les Cloches Volantes” or Flying
Bells are an important part of the Easter traditions of France.
From about the 7th century, it
has been customary to silence the bells on Good Friday in acknowledgment of the
death of Jesus.
Legend has
it that on Good Friday, the bells of every church in France fly to Rome,
carrying with them the grief of those who mourn Jesus' crucifixion on that day.
Once in Rome, the bells are blessed by
the Pope and filled with Easter eggs. In
keeping with the tradition, French church bells do not ring from Good Friday to
Easter Sunday morning when the bells are said to return. As the bells fly back to their churches, they scatter Easter eggs and other treats over all of the gardens
throughout France.
The sound of the bells on Easter
Sunday morning (les cloches de Pâques) heralds the celebration of the
Resurrection, declaring that Jesus is alive again. In some villages, people
kiss and embrace each other when they hear the bells ring again.
French chocolate shops (les chocolateries)
sell chocolate flying bells alongside Easter eggs and bunnies.
After pupils had learnt about the legend of the flying bells, we read a simple French story about it by Emilie Woodroffe:
This story is a great opportunity to recap
the days of the week and simple statements: voici (here is..) ; je suis ( I am…) The children enjoyed joining in with the story and acting it out.
We also watched this short French videoclip:
In KS1, pupils learnt a 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
We followed on by watching a short extract from this videoclip of the bells of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris ringing out on Easter Sunday ! This was a great opportunity to recap basic numbers as the children enjoyed counting out aloud in French each time they heard the bells ring.
Finally, they enjoyed making a 'flying bells' themed Easter card to take home to share with their family:
Here is another fun French song about celebrating Easter that the children might like to listen to at home:
In KS2, pupils learnt some Easter themed vocabulary in French. They then used this vocabulary to make 'une cloche' calligram:
Some pupils also made a 'Les cloches volantes' mini-book designed by Victoria Jones from the Languages In Primary Schools Facebook group.
We ended the lesson by watching this videoclip that celebrates Easter and features the famous Belgian comic hero, Tintin :
During lent, various fund-raising activities take place in my cluster of Catholic schools. This year, we decided to join in with a French themed lenten fundraiser by raffling a 'Flying Bell' Easter egg. The Chaplains did a wonderful job selling raffle tickets. Hopefully, whoever the lucky winner was in each school will be able to share the 'legend of the flying bells' (as well as the chocolate!) with their family.
Joyeuses Pâques à tous !
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