Literal translation
to celebrate Easter before Palm Sunday
Meaning
to have sexual relations before marriage
Explanation
Festeja means to celebrate or to feast, Pasco means Easter, avans means before, and rampau means palm or branch, referring to Palm Sunday, which precedes Easter in the liturgical calendar; the expression thus literally means celebrating Easter before Palm Sunday, that is, marking an event before the one that should normally come first. In use, it refers to having sexual relations before marriage, the image playing on reversing the expected order of two moments in the religious calendar to signal an anticipation judged improper by traditional standards. The expression was mostly said of impatient engaged couples whose physical union preceded the ceremony, a situation made worse and public when the bride-to-be turned out pregnant before the wedding, a case then described as ça faisait figure, meaning it showed. The register is familiar and carries the kind of moral judgment typical of traditional rural societies, where propriety around marriage was closely watched by the village community.