French Easter Vocabulary - Lawless French for the Holidays


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Springy French Vocabulary

Easter’s date changes every year: it occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox – so somewhere between 22 March and 25 April.

The week immediately preceding Easter (Sunday to Saturday) is called Holy Week. Here’s all the French vocabulary you need to celebrate this Christian period of renewal.

Easter		le Pâques, les Pâques (f)
Passover		la Pâque
spring		le printemps
Lent		le carême
Holy Week		la Semaine Sainte
Palm Sunday		dimanche des Rameaux Pâques fleuries
Shrove Tuesday		mardi gras
Ash Wednesday		mercredi des Cendres
Maundy Thursday		jeudi saint
Good Friday		vendredi saint
Easter Sunday		le dimanche de Pâques
Easter Day		le jour de Pâques
Easter Monday		lundi de Pâques

French Easter expressions

Joyeuses Pâques ! Bonnes Pâques !		Happy Easter!
Noël au balcon, Pâques au tison		A warm Christmas means a cold Easter
À Pâques ou à la Trinité		very late, never

In the French tradition, all the church bells fly to the Vatican on Maunday Thursday, leaving churches silent. They return on Easter with eggs and chocolates, and ring once again.

basket		un panier
to bless		bénir
branch		un rameau
bunny		un lapin
chick		un poussin
chocolate		le chocolat
chocolate egg		un œuf en chocolat
church		une église
church bell		une cloche
daffodil		une jonquille
Easter (adjective)		pascal*
Easter brioche		la gâche de Pâques
Easter egg hunt		la chasse aux œufs
Easter procession		un défilé pascal
egg		un œuf
fast day		un jour de jeûne
to fly		voler
flying bell		une cloche volante
hen		une poule
lamb		un agneau
meatless meal		un repas maigre
nest		un nid
to paint		peindre
Pope		le pape
pork		le porc
priest		prêtre
rabbit		un lapin
to ring, toll		sonner
wing		une aile
woven palm leaves		palmes tressées

Easter Monday is a public holiday and is traditionally celebrated with pâquette, where families eat omelettes together. In Bessières (Haute-Garonne), there’s an annual Easter festival featuring the preparation and consumption of a giant Easter omelette: l’omelette pascale et géante, which is 4 meters (13 feet) in diameter and contains 15,000 eggs. (This is unrelated to la Fête de l’omelette géante [3 meters] that takes place every September in Fréjus [Var].)

* Boys and girls born on or near Easter are often named Pascal and Pascale.