Festivals and customs

The list for the days a calendar is built around. One word on it crossed into English and each language kept a different half. La fanfare in French is the *band*: the brass players in uniform who march at the front of a procession and play under the trees on a Sunday — a group of people you can point at. English « fanfare » is the *sound*: the short blast of trumpets that announces somebody, and from there the fuss made about anything at all, which is why « without fanfare » means quietly. Neither will do for the other. The English for the players is « a brass band »; the French for the blast is une sonnerie de trompettes or une fanfare de trompettes, where the second word has to be added. So a sentence saying a village has its own fanfare is about thirty people with instruments, not about a noise.