The Bells of Rome and the Easter Bunnies

When I was a little girl, we were made to believe that the Easter eggs
were being delivered by huge bells.
Not just any bells, they came all the way from Rome ...
Imagine this ...





I believed that those Roman bells escaped from their towers in Rome
and travelled all the way to Belgium, to my grandmothers back yard.
I even saw them flying over the garden at my grandmother's house once.
A friend of mine had seen a big flock of them actually dropping
the chocolate goodies over at her mother's place.
The huger the bells, the huger the eggs they carried with them.
I got to see them only once though.
From then on, I could only hear them.
I could not see them any more, but I knew they were there ...
... because I heard them, I really did ...
As I grew a little bit older it kind of made me worry a little
that the eggs could get broken
or that they might drop them on somebody's head.
But nobody mentioned any accidents that had happened
so I just assumed those bells knew what they were doing.

Growing up, I learned that some kids had never heard of
the story of the Bells of Rome.
Their Easter eggs were being delivered by Easter Bunnies.
I never gave it much thought.
One day I was old enough to hear the real truth,
and it was my first real dissapointment in life.

A lot has changed since then.
The Bells of Rome and the Easter Bunnies both play
their part in the modern Easter stories ...


My little nephew did have a couple of questions though...
But he has it all figured out ...

Here comes his theory on " who-does-what-and-when"

The Bells still travel all the way to Belgium,
but they drop money instead of eggs.
As soon as the money is dropped,
the Easter Bunnies come out and they collect it.
With that money the Easter Bunnies go out shopping.
( I wish I was a Easter Bunny right now!)
Anyway, they buy toys at the local toy shop,
and then they buy the chocolate eggs at Neuhaus , Leonidas
(or any other good quality Belgian chocolatier.
My nephew insists on good quality, who can blame him?

Okay, when they are done with their shopping the Bunnies
send a message to the Bells of Rome.
The Bells are now hiding somewhere in a secret clocktower in Belgium.
(They probably use their cell phones to send the message,
or they could send an e mail, it's the 21st century after all ... )

Then the bells come back and they sort of beam the eggs up.
( beam me up Scottie?!!!)
They keep them refrigerated in their huge bellies until Easter.
On Easter day they fly over and gently drop the eggs in people's gardens .
That's when the Bunnies come out again.
They are the ones hiding the eggs in the end.


And then the children come out to search them ...
Complicated?
Yes, but it does makes sense, now doesn't it?


Update:
To proove to you that the Bells of Rome really did hide in Belgium until Easter,
I found this picture in my old photoalbum.
It must have been one of the first pictures I ever took in my life.
It was on a shool trip in the Ardennes.