Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Cocorico

The French celebrate things differently. Like I said before, they have small celebrations for their Saint’s day.

They do of course have Christmas, Easter, St. Valentine’s Day, and Halloween (limited), but they don’t make THAT big of deal about it. For me, every holiday marks the year. I love to decorate for all holidays. Dressing up, celebrating, and making a big to-do out of a holiday is how I have fun. Most holidays in France pass by without notice, just a little blurb on the radar. They act how I act on Groundhog’s Day: “Oh yeah… it’s Groundhog’s Day.”

They do have days that are French… like Bastille Day and Armistice Day ( I know I know… we have Veteran’s Day, but people don’t actually care…) French flags are flying high those days which is actually a change of pace. The French don’t show a lot of Cocorico. Cocorico means cockle-doodle-doo (even the roosters speak French). The symbol of France is the coq (rooster), so to have cocorico is to have a lot of French pride. The Nationalists have adopted this as their slogan. “Proud to be an American” has become a slogan and a song. American flags and state flags are visible and the whole “Americana” style is popular in many homes in the US. Cocorico is not as prevalent.

Just because they are a little more subdued and a little less “team spirited” doesn’t mean that they don’t love being French. Not at all. Ask any Frenchie about the Olympics and they know they currently have 5 medals. Well… the US currently has 8… just saying

2 comments:

  1. Christina: Here is a very entertaining reading of a David Sedaris story appropriate to this post. The last line is the kicker:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UagpFoguoUY

    ReplyDelete