Why is the cicada the symbol of Provence? And why do I always spell it cicadia? Why do I pronounce it cicadia? I may switch to le cigale because I’ll be able to remember that.
Anyway, I’m interested in this. The why. Please someone leave a detailed history, with footnotes, or a link to. No, “Well, it sounds pretty, that’s why,” kind of explanations will be accepted.
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I can’t help you with any of your questions, but le cigale for some reason caused me to idly wonder why Spanish has two words for cicada. One is chicharra, which also means a buzzer. Chicharrón, which literally should mean a big chicharra, has nothing to do with cicadas, but is the word for fired pork rinds.
Cracklings. OK, now I get it.
The other word for cicada is cigarra. Cigarro, almost the same but with an o on the end, has nothing to do with cicadas, and means either cigar or cigarette, depending on which spanish speaking country you are in. I thought, well, OK, maybe cicadas somehow look like cigars in Spanish, but in looking this up I see that the apparent convergence is an acccident; cigarro comes from a Mayan word siyar meaning cigar, and cigarra comes from Latin cicala meaning cicada.
Maybe you have crossed the cicadia wire in your head with the Arcadia one. Or Acadia. It think I read somewhere that Acadia ultimately comes from Arcadia, but that may be a false memory.
Why do southerners, including me, always pronounce tarpaulin as tarpoleon, rhyming with Napoleon? Answer me that.
Too many questions, and all the wrong answers.
I must have read, in the past, something about cigarro being another word for cicadas because I kept wanting to write cigarro instead of cigale.
And it is quite likely I’ve crossed a cicadia/cicada head wire with Acadia/Arcadia.
I pronounce tarpaulin correctly but then I grew up in the north. But Marty pronounces tarpaulin correctly though he grew up in Mississippi. In fact, I can’t think of a single southerner I know who pronounces it tarpoleon. Is this a Texas thing, tarpoleon? But, come to think of it, most people I know call them tarps. Just tarps. Me too.
I love cicadas. And I didn’t know all of these things the two of you have spoken of about them. How very interesting! That word ‘chicharra’ sounds kind of like the sound they make. I think people up north in this country also call cicadas ‘locusts’ even though to me a locust would be an entirely different creature. I haven’t looked up Provence and cicadas so I’m about to make a guess about why it might be the symbol of Provence. I do know that there are certain ‘pods’ of cicadas in this country that all hatch out at about the same time. I think they run in certain cycles, some of them appearing every 17 years. I remember a couple of years ago one of those pods up in the W. Virginia area hatched out and a friend remarked on what a racket they made as well as the nuisance and alarmingness of having zillions of these things all around, flying against you, all over the sidewalks, etc. Those cicadas look a little different from the ones I see and hear in the Atlanta area. Anyway, I wonder if Provence has one of those pods in their area and that it hatches out at predictable intervals and overruns the place and that perhaps they decided it gave Provence something distinctive about it so it became their symbol. I’m about to go for a walk. I’ll think more about cicadas and what they mean to me.
P.S. I’ve been out walking and thought about cicadas. As I walked, the tops of the trees were just beginning to catch the morning sun. Cicadas were beginning to stir and whir. By the time I finished my walk, an hour and a half later, the songs of cicadas filled the air. I think of cicadas as the epitome of summer. They begin to sing as the days begin to really heat up in late May or early June. This time of year, as you can feel summer winding down, I begin to find fallen cicadas–alongside the road, dead; on sidewalks, dying. They are summer visitors. I think of Provence as a summery, sun-drenched place. I think of it as a place that several artists and many others have gone to live for extended stays. I’m not sure but I think it probably attracts a lot of tourists who would, naturally, leave as the summer draws to a close. I wonder if cicadas are thought of as being like those tourists.
Nina, so far all I’ve found is they’re supposed to be, in Provence, symbols of good luck and hospitality. Some give them as bringing happiness. And they’re the sound of Provence in the summer.
I’ve read that the bees in Childrec’s tomb may instead be cicadas. The Met Art Museum doesn’t mention this but instead does show them as an ancient symbol found on Frankish brooches.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/barb/hod_1993.263.htm
So I guess ranking with the bees as emblems of royalty? If they were found in grave sites then symbols of resurrection and immortality as found in some other cultures?
The cicada may now only represent hospitality etc. but I was thinking there may have been antique associations that made them a particularly powerful, long-lasting favorite. And what they may have meant to early royals seems a good place to go.
http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/symbols/index.asp
I think I’d read before they were perhaps cicadas, not bees, that were early sovereign symbols, but most everywhere I read bees, bees, bees, so that’s what stayed with me.
Got started on this because my mom sent me a link to some tablecloths from Provence and I noticed the cigales and thought well it’s kind of odd to eat on a tablecloth covered by bugs, instead of your traditional fruits, flowers and vegetables, but they were also quite beautiful. I decided they would be great covering a table…at least representations of them, not the real deal.
That image you supplied from The Met reminds me a whole lot of flies that I’ve seen depicted in ancient Egyptian and Nubian jewelry. I tried to find an image just now, to show for comparison, but I’m not coming up with anything in a quick search. We used to have a necklace at the Museum, of flies. And we do still have a fly among some of the Nubian artworks. The fly in ancient Egypt was a symbol of perseverance and was therefore associated with warriors. I’m struck by the similarity of the cicada at The Met and those flies and then what you say about bees and sovereign symbols.
Oh, and yes, I think cicadas are quite beautiful. I love the idea of a tablecloth with cicada images on it.
Isn’t cicadia a prescription drug?? 🙂 Maybe one of its side effects is the desire to revel in all things cicada. Maybe Circadia TM was developed in France.
As for your pronunciation (and forgive me if someone else said this… I’m scanning), maybe you’re thinking of Circadian rhythm. Cicadas don’t have a 24 hr cycle, but then maybe 17 yrs is 24 hours in cicada years.
That countdown on the edit feature is a tad intimidating… I find myself re-reading my comment, looking at the countdown, looking at my comment… Oh THE PRESSURE!!!
Nina, this is the link to the tablecloths.
http://www.lartdevivre.ca/OurCollections/Fabricsbythemetre.html
Didn’t know that about flies. Interesting. All I knew about flies was their being considered demonic via the Hebrew antagonism for the competing god, Baalzebub. And I thought I’d read Egyptians also considered flies demonic, I guess a later development, if it’s true at all.
There was a Cyrenian fly god but I read the worship of it was intended to keep away the little buggers.
Flies are nothing if not persevering. And, honestly, a better outlook on the world would seem to me to be to examine the characteristics of a reviled creature, find something good (“Ah! Persevering!”) and hail it for that. But I imagine our modern eye on the issue isn’t going to fully grasp the reasons for its worship and how that transpired. Another world.
We (not you, the general generic presiding collective) tend to reduce these things to the most easily graspable element. A lot of confusion about American Indian spirituality results, and I imagine the same applies for this. Because it seems peculiar to me that a deity such as Baalzebub would have been as important as it was in some places, if it was only meaningful for keeping away flies.
Am trying to write this while helping fix H.o.p.’s computer (wasn’t running some programs) so am not very focused. But got his computer to run the programs. Just had to increase virtual memory.
Jennifer, I know it’s a bit intimidating but it has to do with a protection against spammers. What I’d like to do is get a comment preview plug-in that works.
No doubt I have cicada brain wires crossed with circadian as well. It’s a tangled mess up there.
P.S. Nina, isn’t the brooch beautiful? I take it the Egyptian necklace at the museum was on loan. Now I’m interested in seeing the remaining depiction of the Nubian fly you have.
We need to get back down there one day. Our museum interests have pretty much narrowed down to both Fernbanks. Should expand back out.
Yes, the brooch is beautiful. I found another website with things from Provence, and was taken by the ceramic ones that are meant to be placed by your door. I think I want one. Here’s the link:
http://www.lepinparasol.com/souvenirs_of_provence.htm#CERAMIC%20CICADAS
And yes, the Egyptian necklace was a loan. I was sorry when that went back to its owner. But the Nubian fly should still be there. Although I get to the galleries so infrequently these days…But! Next February we’ll be opening a big exhibition of Nubian art. It has some beautiful pieces in it. That one might well be worth your time to come see. Also, we’ll have an exhibition of thangkas in November and December. I’m looking forward to both of these next exhibitions.
I’ve seen other ceramic ones on the web. Jumping on the band wagon, I want one too…but someone might come along and take it.
The brooches there are awful. Why not something simple? Instead they cover them with those crystals.
Defnitely the thangkas and the Nubian art exhibit. We’ve got to get by for those. Y’know if we got email updates we might get down there. I’ve looked around the Carlos Museum website but not seen where I can sign up for email updates. Do you have a link for that?
I think I could just ask the person who sends those updates out to add you to the list. I’ll try to remember to do that. But yeah, there’s no way from the website to request being added to the email list. Perhaps we ought to add one!
You only get them in Provence? Special insects…Noisey too !I just got back from a campsite in some dry pine trees in the Carmargue. At noon in white hot sun these insects make a real racket.Thankfully they stop at night…but then the grass hoppers start.So people there are proud of them…
Symbol of provence…
like Kiwis are to New Zealiand
Pandas to China
Bengal tigers to Bengal
Manx cats to Isle of Man
Kangaroos to Aus
Etc Etc Etc
Cant see why you would have an issue with this.
When did it start ?
Tough one that !
With Roman Pont de Gard and Ampitheatres in the region mankind has been there along time…(Troglodidte toombs there too) so
At what point in time over the last 10,000 years it became a sysbol for Provence…who knows with any certainty ? !
French call them
cigale.
They are cicada beetles all over the world…some with 17 year life cycles…
Indeed, there are cicadas the world over. We have them here. But no one makes ceramics of them and hangs them by their doors or weaves them into tablecloths. If anyone had suggested the cicada be a state symbol, they would have been pummeled to death with peaches. Which can be sold. So became the state symbol. There’s not a huge market out there for cicadas as a food source and the peach growers had a powerful peach syndicate.
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