On Maundy Thursday, Jeudi Saint, or Jeudi Vert (Alsace), a curious custom, differing in details, prevails in many parts of France; little wooden hammers are taken to church and benches, chairs, etc., are beaten with them; sometimes the exterior of the church; in some places this is called "uteri less Juices"; in others it is on Good Friday that the hammering is done, and this has been skillfully diverted so as to announce the services in the absence of the bells.  

In Alsace different bitter herbs used to be eaten (in remembrance perhaps of the Charoseth or Jewish dish of bitter herbs); and hence apparently the name Jeudi Vert. In Abbeville martelets, or little planchettes with three or four hammers attached-some- times also "crecelles" or castaquettes-were used to announce the services. This hammering, other than for the above purpose, seems very difficult to explain. The "tuer les Juifs" explanation seems unlikely. In Picardy children chant the hours of services and are rewarded with eggs. In Anjou on Good Friday at three o'clock millers stopped their mills, leaving the sails up, in a sort of mourning. No animal must be killed on Good Friday, and no washing is done in some parts (Franche-Comte', e.g.) in the latter half of the week. Holy-water stoups will be found empty early on Easter Eve. The water is blessed in the morning.  

Source: A Guide to French Fetes by E. I. Robson. London: Methuen, 1930, p.77. 
 

Easter Sunday in Besancon, c. 1900  

Following the legend, the bells of all the churches come back on Easter Day from Rome where they have gone on Good Friday to be blessed by the Pope. All children fancy that they have seen them flying back to their beloved home belfry.  

"Oh, I saw the bells of St. Maurice, all dressed up in a thin blue veil; the last one caught her train in the weathercock, as it came flying by the steeple," the little peasants tell each other as they listen, face upwards, to the vibrant calling of the bells, filling up the whole blue sky.  

Everywhere the mountain-springs and the birds sing together, and flowers by the million embroider the old roads and young hedges. All the country churches are in flower; the fields, full of promising young wheat, seem to await the Easter benediction.  

The solemn procession walks slowly out of the little portico, banners float in the spring breeze, litanies-sung by the village ers-rise in the soft air, and the flame of the long candles borne by them flicker in the sunlight. Little choir-boys in lace and red robes swing incense-burners in front of the old priest carrying the Host, walking under a canopy. These hieratic gestures of benediction bless the fields, the trees, the houses, the flocks, the people. Young girls, carrying baskets full of spring flowers, strew them gracefully along the road as the Host passes, as so many promises for a good harvest. Nature is so young, so generous, that all hopes are renewed afresh.  

Source: When I Was a Girl in France by Georgette Beuret. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1916, pp. l71-l72. 

 

Zaterdag Voor Paschen

Holy Saturday is especially a children's day in Condroz. Although the restrictions of Lent lie lightly on them, they are the ones who celebrate relaxation of the restrictions. This, and not Easter, is the day for hunting eggs, colored or otherwise. The boys parade the village chanting: 

Source: Chateau-Gerard: The Life and Times of a Walloon Village by Harry Hulbert Turney~High. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1953, pp. 254-255. 

During the Easter holidays the weather was better, and we could play outside. On Good Friday the church-bells and the chimes were never rung, and we were told that the bells had gone to Rome and would return next morning with the Easter eggs. We were up early Saturday morning, making little nests of hay, which we hid about the garden between bushes and in the flower-beds. 

Then while we had breakfast, Father or Mother would go into the garden and put the colored eggs and also chocolate and sugar eggs in the nests. And when at eight o'clock the church-bells rang, we would all cry out: "The church-bells have returned from Rome! The church-bells have come back!" 

And I would rush to the garden and look for my little nest, and find the eggs, and shout for joy! Everywhere the children were on the street with their nests of Easter eggs, showing and comparing their treasures. The richer people gave their children big chocolate eggs filled with smaller sugar eggs; the poorer people gave hen's eggs which the mothers had colored gold and red and blue, but all the children were equally happy and glad that day. 

Source: When I Was a Boy in Belgium by Robert Jonckheere. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1915, pp. 42-43. 

Church bells and rattles 

Throughout the Roman Catholic world the church bells cease to ring on Holy, or Maundy, Thursday. In Chateau-Gerard and neighboring villages the faithful are summoned to church by young boys, usually the altar servers, creating a fearful din with wooden rattles or, in the American term, "rackets." These are the machines with thin and resonant strips of wood sounded by wooden rachets over their tongues-the origin of the identical instruments distributed to American night club patrons in order that they may make noise on New Year's Eve. These noisemakers may vary in Wallonia from a half-foot in length to more than two, and are either private property of the boys' families and kept in the attic during the rest of the year, or belong to the parish. 

At one time the altar boys played their rattles through. village, but today they stand on the porch of the Templar church rattling and chanting the following at the time the bells would normally be rung: 

Selling holy bread 
A very general practice throughout Wallonia, including Chateau-Gerard, is for the clergy to give young children a certain amount of the round, thin wafers used as the priest's host at Mass, to sell at the church doors on Maundy, or Holy Thursday, the anniversary of the institution of the Holy Communion. Whatever money the children collect is given to the clergy to distribute the parish's most needy families. The lay folk who buy these wafers take them home and nail them over their front doors to ward off evil. 

Source: Chateau-Gerard: The Life and Times of a Walloon Village by Harry Holbert Turney-High. Columbia: Universal of South Carolina Press, 1953, pp. 258-259. 

Special church services are held in the afternoon starting at 3 PM.   Good Friday pageants are held in fourteen different towns and villages. During these pageants, a number of life-size statues depicting scenes from the passion and death of Jesus Christ are carried shoulder-high in procession along the main streets of the particular locality. Men and women personifying Biblical characters from the Old and New Testament all dressed authentic costumes take part in the processions. 

Easter Sunday 
Early morning processions with the Statue of the Risen Christ  are held in various towns and villages. Particularly interesting 
are ones held at Vittoriosa and Cospicua. It is still customary children to have their 'figolla' blessed by the Risen Christ 
during these processions. The 'figolla' is a special sweet for Easter. Two identically cut pieces of pastry are filled with marzipan and baked. The top pastry is then decorated with colored icing sugar. The 'figolla' can take various shapes, the most popular being a lamb, a basket or a fish. 
Source: "Malta & Gozo: Events Calendar '90." National Tour ism Organization, 1990. 

Blessing the house in Tuscany 

. . . Before the Monday of Holy Week Silvana prepares for a very ancient ceremony, pre-Christian in origin. She cleans her large house from attic to kitchen, sweeping away old cobwebs from the high rafter-ed ceilings, polishing the red-tiled floors and washing the small-paned windows to an unaccustomed glitter. The shutters are flung wide open in all the rooms on the middle floor of the house which are filled with cumbersome country  and oversized beds with bedsteads of curved decorative metal, painted with panels of violets and pansies, or carved slats of stylized roses. The mattresses of firm horsehair are turned and covered with fresh sheets of heavy cream linen scented with the fields where each week they are hung to dry. Fresh coverlets crocheted in bright wool's are laid on each bed. 

    Next the dining room table is laid with the best tablecloth and in it Silvana places a large bowl full of new laid eggs, covered with a white napkin. Fresh lilac is stuffed into the glass pot under the plaster image of Jesus and the house is ready, with Silvana neat in a new headscarf and apron, to receive the visit of the parish priest, Don Franco. He starts his round with the Cerotti house and arrives early in the morning.... 

When the priest is robed, accompanied by a young server who is also begowned, he walks through the house and sprinkles holy water in each room, blessing the house and the family as he goes. Finally the priest blesses the eggs. The small ceremony pleases Silvana and initiates a fertile new season. The official Roman Catholic attitude to this very old custom is that it reminds the individual of his own baptism and is a renewal of old vows. Years ago the priests went to all houses with their blessing, but today they only visit those people who request their presence. 

Source: The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer. New York: Atheneum, 1985, pp.53-54 
 
 

Holy week in Sicily 

    Every home is cleaned well before the priest visits to bestow the Easter blessing. In Agrigento, the housewives come to their doors when they hear the church bells sound after the Mass of Glory. They wave sticks and shout "Let the devil leave and Christ enter!" 

    The churches are all adorned with flowers and lights. Each person visits seven churches on Thursday afternoon and evening. On Good Friday a Crucifixion procession takes place in each area, with the marchers clothed in mourning black. 

    After the Mass of Glory, the mourning curtains are taken from the altar to reveal a triumphant Christ. In Novara he is raised to the ceiling by a pulley, amid clouds and angels. In some places the Incontro, the meeting of Christ with His Mother, is enacted on Easter Sunday. Easter Monday is a holiday, and visits to the country are popular. 

Source: Festivals and Folkways of Italy by Frances Toor. New York: Crown, 1953, pp. 80-8l. 
 

Red Easter eggs tossed to Albanian congregation 

In Piano degli Albanese, near Palermo, red Easter eggs are tossed to the congregation after the priest says "Christ is risen." The red eggs are also part of the celebrations at Contessa Entellina, Sicily. The Albanian colony at Piano degli Albanese has been in Sicily since the fifteenth century. 

Source: An Egg at Easter: A Folklore Study by Venetia Newell. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971, p.225.