Working, Living & Travelling In Ireland

Category: Easter

  • Lost in Dutch Translation : Clocks and bells

    Lost in Dutch Translation : Clocks and bells

    Hi all,

    A few days ago I published a post about an interesting Easter fact in Belgium. The article referred to flying Easter Clocks, and I remember whilst writing the post, I hesitated a few times whether I needed to use the word clock or use the word bell. It looks like it is a case of lost in translation! Just to elaborate, in case you didn’t read the article, in Belgium it is the bells that hang in the clock tower of a church that carry the Easter Eggs they picked up in Rome and then drop them in Belgium.

    It was one of my Belgian friends on Facebook that asked me if I meant to write bells instead of clocks . I checked the word of Clocktower ( a tower that has clocks and bells. He  came back with the word belltower, ie a tower that has bells, but no clocks. I then realized I made a mistake.

    Now why would I use the word clock instead of bell?

    To translate the word clock into Dutch, it’s horloge or uurwerk ( hourwork being a very literal translation), To translate the English word bell into Dutch is…. klok. (It’s not entirely consistent, as  a doorbell is not called a deurklok, it is called a deurbel.  So it  looks like we have a  great example of a homonym, meaning a word that sounds the same, but have a very different meaning.

    I am a very visual thinker, so for me the word “clock” ( not knowing in what language you are talking to me), I will think about :

    Example of a bell

    Ask an English speaker what they associate with clock, and you will probably see this :

    Image of a clock

    So instead of Easter-bunny-brings-eggs-or-is-it-the-Easter-clocks, it should have read

    Easter Bunny brings eggs, or is it the flying Easter bells?

    Below image shows you how the bells get wings, so they can fly to Rome and back.

    Flying Bells containing Easter Eggs

    I know, it’s wicked!!

     

     

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  • Easter Bunny brings eggs, or is it the Easter Clocks?

    Easter Bunny brings eggs, or is it the Easter Clocks?

    Hello all,

    Happy Easter to all my readers! Easter is celebrated around Ireland this weekend! The kids have been off school for a week now, and have another week to go! Typically you can participate in an Easter Egg Hunt ( I recommend the one at Kylemore Abbey), where rabbits hide Easter eggs in the garden or around the house. Wikipedia gives you a thorough overview of the origins and history of Easter. It also touches on the tradition of chocolate eggs, and how the Easter Bunny brings the eggs or is the Easter Clocks??

    Click here to join my Gort Cycle Trails Group on Facebook, or find out more on my new website www.gortcycletrails.com

     

     

    Easter eggs in Belgium, where do they come from?

    As I am from Belgium, I grew up with a very different tradition. It was only when I moved to Ireland, I came to realize that my Easter Eggs came from a very different source… Can you guess??

    Well, my Easter Eggs came from flying church clocks ! What ??? If you didn’t grow up with this, this sounds mad, but to me ( and any other Belgian native) this is very normal. Who said Belgians were boring!!

    So the story goes that on holy Thursday eve ( Maundy Thursday, in Belgium it’s called White Thursday- the day Christ had his last supper – okay, I had to Google this ), the church clocks./bells ( see image above) don’t chime  until Easter, as the church bells are en route to pick up Easter Eggs in Rome. Once they are loaded up, they fly back to Belgium, drop the eggs ( packaged if it’s wet !) in gardens  all over Belgium ( or inside if you don’t have a garden). Once they have done their job, the church bells start chiming again.

    As a child at school, I would colour Church bells, decorate eggs, and be slightly afraid to walk outside, as you might just get hit by an Easter egg!

    Easter Clocks flying back to Belgium

    Unlike the Easter eggs in Ireland, they don’t tend to be packaged, they are loose ( or smaller ones foil wrapped), and you’d have dark chocolate, white chocolate and milk chocolate eggs.. My favourite was always the white chocolate eggs filled with chocolate pralines in them.. yummie… Not to deprive you from any of these, Amazon will gladly send you out these goodies. If you click on them, and were to decide to order them, I get a very small fee.




    If you haven’t got your Easter eggs by now, you are not entirely out of luck, as if there are any left after tomorrow( when all shops are closed) you might get your hands on some heavily discounted ones..

    Enjoy!

    Katleen

     

     

     

     

     

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