Easter is celebrated with great devotion and fervor in France. France is regarded as the cradle of Christianity. Easter is called Pâques in France. France has long heritage and it is known for its deep rooted faith in Catholicism. There are many traditions related to Easter festivities and people follow them very heartily. Shops are decorated with collection of many Easter symbols like white and dark chocolate rabbits, bells, chickens and fish.

There is very great difference between Easter festivities somewhere else and Easter festivities in France; in France, instead of bunny; bell and fish are thought as the Easter symbols. The name given to French Easter fish is Poisson d’Avril which means “April Fish”. On April 1st, the poisson d’Avril comes and children love playing the “April Fool” trick on this day. For this, they prepare number of paper fish and stick them on the back of as many elders as they can.

There are many other ingredients of Easter Day celebrations in France. Flying Bells or Cloche Volant is another such significant part of Eastertide festivities. These bells have religious beliefs attached with them. According to the French Catholics, church bells in the French Churches, on the Good Friday, fly to the Vatican in Rome. It believed that these bells carry with them the miseries and grief of those who mourn on the day of crucifixion of Jesus. Then again these bells fly back on the Easter morning and bring with them eggs and chocolates. There is an Easter tradition in France that church bells do not ring since Good Friday to the Easter Morning.

France does have the fun activities on the Easter like the old tradition of rolling of raw eggs on the gentle slope. Eggs which survive are victorious and this tradition also symbolizes the rolling away of a stone from the tomb of the Christ. Another egg game played by kids in France is to throwing the eggs in air and the kid who drops it first loses the game.