Easter Bell bento

Paasklokken bento - 02.04.2010

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Easter tradition in Belgium and France, seeing a bell as an Easter theme will probably raise some eyebrows. Bells bringing Easter eggs is part of the catholic Easter tradition, although nowadays we also have Easter Bunnies as seasonal decoration. Trivia fact : in Dutch it's not a rabbit, but a hare, the Paashaas :o)

Back to my Easter bell. I am sure you're eager to know how it is related to Easter (and even if you aren't, you're still getting the full story :o) ).

Children are told that after Mass on Maundy Thursday, all the bells leave the bell towers of their respective churches and fly to Rome (hence the wings). This explains why you can't hear any churchbell toll from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday (the silent bells are actually a sign of mourning, but that's not half as fun as imagining flying bells). In the night of Saturday to Easter Sunday, the bells return with their bellies full of Easter eggs, which they drop in the gardens on the way to their churches. On Easter morning the children have to search the garden to find the eggs the bells dropped.

So far the Easter trivia. Now the bento. Under the forbidden rice, I have a stirfry of green bell pepper, bean sprouts, leek and carrots, and mini schnitzels. The carrot kinpira acts as a baran. The vitamin section is composed of white and dark grapes, plum, nectarine, clementine, nectarine and strawberry. I even added two chocolate eggs ... because it's the season :o)

The Easter bell deco is made of cheese (coloured with turmeric), with ham and nori decorations.



To all my friends & readers



6 comments:

Marisa Lyn said...

Wow that was a really cool story and the bento is so colorful. I love the bell with the wings so sweet.

Unknown said...

That was actually very interesting! Thanks for the explanation and the bell is very nicely done!

Bentobird said...

Enjoyed reading this very interesting account of Easter history/symbolism, and about all of the veggie goodies you have tucked under the yummy-looking forbidden rice!

Lia Chen said...

Oh what a cool flying bell in your beautiful bento! Nice story ... love to read it :)

Hasu✿Loto said...

Me gusta mucho el bento y como lo decoras. Yo quiero hacer también bento, ya sé hacer muchas comidas japonesas para cuando se de la ocasión.

Kiss!

Ingrid said...

Marisa, Orit, BentoBird and Lia, thank you so much for your sweet words. I'm glad I introduced you to the wonderous world of the flying bells :o)

Gracias por el complimento, sacerdotista. En realidad, hacer un bento no es tan dificil. Solamente tienes que atreverte y hacer el primero. Verás lo divertido que es (tambien con comida non japonesa).