La vie secrète des ours à miel – une conférence, un livre

This paper is based on a lecture delivered by the author at the National Museum of Natural History in Luxembourg on 11 November 2025 under the title La vie secrète des ours à miel : Biller a Geschichten aus dem Liewe vun den Hunnegbieren (The Secret Life of Honey Bears: Pictures and Stories from the Life of the Honey Bears). Drawing on the author’s private collection of more than 4,000 objects devoted to “honey bears”, it explores an original cultural universe built around the association between bears and honey. So, in this paper, the term “honey bears” refers not only to bear-shaped containers used for honey, but also to a wide variety of related objects associated with bears and honey, including books, plush toys, prints, paintings, postage stamps, postcards, games, toys, clothing, and many other collectibles. The paper highlights the richness of bear representations in fields as diverse as beekeeping, hagiography, folklore, ethnography, advertising, literature, political caricature, philately, heraldry, and zoology. This interdisciplinary approach demonstrates how the image of the honey-loving bear has shaped the collective imagination and inspired a wide range of material and artistic creations across different periods and cultures. The complete slide presentation, illustrating some 270 objects and documents, was published as a privately printed 154-page volume reproducing one slide per page and including a catalogue with explanatory notes.