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[Romanian
Easter Traditions] [Easter Eggs]
[History]
[How to paint / dye eggs ]
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Easter
is the most important event in the Orthodox Christian calendar.
Traditionally, celebrations in Romania begin on the Saturday
evening. Dressed in all their finest clothes and holding candles,
people gather round the churches. At the Easter Resurrection
Mass (Slujba de Inviere) just before midnight, the priest
comes out to give a blessing, distribute holy bread and provide
the flame from which everyone will light their candles. Suddenly
the darkness is lit up and thousands of candles take to the streets.
Everyone tries to keep the flame alive until they arrive home.
There, around the table, the family comes together for a special
Easter meal. Roast lamb and home-made cozonac (sponge
cake with nuts and poppy seeds) are the traditional dishes.
In the countryside, the Easter
Resurrection Mass lasts until early morning. The custom among
country folk is to take their painted eggs, cozonaci and
specially prepared dishes into the church on Saturday night so
they can be blessed by the priest.
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| One of the most beautiful Romanian Easter
traditions is painted eggs. The shells of hard-boiled eggs are
dyed in colourful patterns, with a rich red the prevailing colour.
They are often decorated with folk motifs. Designs are made with
an implement called a condei or chisita - a small
cartridge filled with paint with a sharp point on the end. There
are a myriad of motifs used on painted eggs. The most popular
ones are the cross, the star, the sun, the wave, the zigzags,
and stylised flowers. Sometimes motifs are applied using natural
leaves. Traditionally, it's the women who paint Easter eggs,
and they have to do it on the Thursday before Easter. Women are
not supposed to do any work on the Friday. Sunday Easter morning
the painted eggs are tapped together with the words "Hristos
a Inviat - Adevarat a Inviat" - "Christ is Risen
- He is Risen indeed." This beautiful ritual precedes the
Easter breakfast. For fourty days people, especially in the countryside,
greet each other with these words. |
Easter painted eggs with bright colours
in geometrical patterns or stylized figures, animal and floral
designs are traditional for Eastern Europe, from Romania, Moldova,
Ukraine, to Lithuania. It started long time ago as a pagan ritual.
Christianity adopted this pagan tradition and Easter eggs have
become an indelible feature of the feast commemorating the Resurrection
of Christ.
In many parts of the world one finds ancient myths in which the
Egg features as a symbol of the Sun, Spring and Revival of Nature.
Ethnologists of the 20th century have discovered that the ancient
beliefs of many peoples regarded the Egg of Light as a source
from which the world had sprung, developing from Chaos to Order.
In Eastern Europe the tradition of painting eggs goes back thousand
of years - clay eggs, once evidently painted and dating from
the 13th or 12th century B.C., were unearthed by archaeologists
from river Nistru (Dniester) to Moldavia and Vilnius, Lithuania.
Painted eggs must have been used as charms guarding against evil.
For it to have magic powers, a painted egg must be painted at
a specified time, in certain colours and patterns, and chants
must be sung while it was being painted. It was also very important
to give it as a present to the right person. Painted eggs were
mostly painted by elderly women, late at night, after everything
had grown quiet. It was desirable to do it at the end of the
day which had passed without any rows, scandals or emotional
upheavals. It was a sort of a ritual in which one had to observe
the rules whose origins had long been last in the mists of time.
The eggs had to be either a fertilised one, taken from under
a hen, or if the fertilisation could not be ascertained the egg
to be painted had to be sucked out. To do it one has to make
two tiny holes with a needle at the opposite ends and then by
eggs of its contents. The symbolism of colours, patterns and
designs varied from area to area but were certain patterns and
designs which were of a more universal character. if the colours,
patterns, chanting and other things were of a more universal
character. If the colours, patterns, chanting and other things
were right, if the eggs had been properly chosen and treated
before being painted, if the time of the day when the painting
was done was correct, then the painted eggs were believed to
be powerful charms against fire, lighting, illnesses and other
mishaps
Christianity imbued the painted egg with new meanings transforming
it into the Easter egg and giving it a new symbolism but it could
not eradicate the elements of pagan beliefs associated with the
painted egg. Easter eggs, blessed in church by a priest, were
continued to be used as a sort of charms for many different occasions:
to be placed under the corner stone of a house; to help making
bees to give more honey; to guard against misadventure on a journey;
to secure happiness in marriage; to promote multiplication in
the animal, floral and human worlds, to a name but a few of its
functions. Some of the patterns and signs on painted eggs have
symbolism that has come down to us probably from the pre-historic
times. Wavy patterns symbolize rain; dots - grain which is about
to sprout; squares and rhombi - earth and its its fertility;
the Greek cross - the Sun, and originally a god of the Earth;
a zigzag with rounded angles - the snake which was a symbolical
representation of a god of the Nether World; a tree - the sacred
Tree of Life; a female figure - the Great Goddess; Goddess of
the Sky, Protector of all Life on Earth; a fish - health, fertility,
life and death; birds - creatures that are able to fly high and
thus carry messages to the gods; oak leaves - the god of Thunder,
of human and solar energy, of life. All the figures representations,
of course, are highly stylized. Up until the beginning of the
20th century natural dyeing materials were used such as onion
peel, birch leaves, hay, oak or alder bark. Very popular was
the dark dye produced by soaking and boiling a mixture of alder
bark and rust. Dyed eggs were placed in a hot oven or hot water
for the wax to melt. Patterns in several colours were produced
by painting them with wax on a lighter colour and placing the
egg in a darker dye. Similar patterns could also be scraped with
the tip of a knife. |
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How to Paint
Easter Eggs
As well as making inspirational
gifts, decorative eggs make a lovely table-setting for Easter
Sunday. Just arrange them in pretty, coloured bowls or baskets
on a little foliage or freshly cut grass, and place at either
end of the table. Or follow the German tradition of hanging decorative
eggs from spray-painted branches then scatter them throughout
the house just as you would holly at Christmas time. The eggs
could be either blown or hard-boiled and dyed.
How to Blow Eggs
Wash the egg and prick top and
bottom with a thick needle or hatpin. Peel away a little shell
at the base. Holding the egg over a bowl, seal your lips over
the top and blow hard. The egg will resist then come out in a
rush! Rinse the shell carefully in cold water and prop up to
dry.
Alternatively, eggs can be hard-boiled
after they have been washed (and the shell degreased).
How to Colour
- Use only food-grade dyes, such
as red food dye or other coulours;
- Dissolve the dye in warm water,
add a pinch of salt and few drops of vinegar, then bring to boil
- Dip the hard-boiled eggs and
leave to coulour on all sides, after dyeing, leave the egg to
dry on a plate with bloating paper;
- You could use onion skins to
create a really glamorous Easter egg! Boil eggs (in shells) with
onion skins and they'll turn a rich, glowing bronze. Then paint
patterns on them using gold, silver or bronze pens
- Alternatively, melt some candle
stubs in a saucepan over a low heat. Dilute a few drops of different
food dyes in glasses of water. Dip egg first in dye then into
the melted wax just to cover the dye mark. The wax seals the
dye so you can dip the egg in several colours without them running
into one another.
- You could also, try patterning
the egg with little stick-on circles and stars. Then paint with
poster or spray paints. Peel off the labels to reveal the shapes
in contrast underneath. For a two-colour effect, paint the whole
egg first in a light colour, stick on the labels, repaint in
a darker shade and remove labels (the shapes will retain the
original pale colour).
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Romanian
Traditions
Mãrtisor
- Little March
Painted Easter Eggs