On Easter Eggs

Considering a few Easter Egg Traditions

Dyeing the Easter Eggs

Dyeing the Easter eggs, the children talk
Of dying. Resurrection’s in the air
Like the whiff of vinegar. These eggs won’t hatch,
My daughter says, since they are cooked and dead,
A hard-boiled batch.

I am the children’s blonde American mother,
Who thinks that Easter eggs should be pastel—
But they have icon eyes, and they are Greek.
And eggs should be, they’ve learned at school this week,
Blood red.

We compromise, and some are yellow, or blue,
Or red and blue, assorted purples, mauves,
But most are crimson, a hematic hue
Rubbed to a sheen with chrism of olive oil;
They will not spoil,

As Christian death is a preservative,
As Jesus trampled death and harrowed Hell.
The kids’ palms are incarnadine and violet.
A mess! Go wash your hands! They wash their hands,
Punctilious as Pontius Pilate.

-A. E. Stallings

A. E. Stallings is an American poet who lives in Athens, Greece with her family. In this marvelous poem she tells us about the Greek Orthodox tradition of dyeing Easter eggs red, not the pastel colors you often see in America. Today being Easter day, I wanted to share with you a few of the many different traditions surrounding Easter eggs.

The connections between eggs and Easter are not hard to see. Just as new life emerges from an egg, so also Jesus emerged from death and the grave on Easter morning. With Easter occurring in the spring when eggs are plentiful, and especially after the 40 days of fasting when many Christians did not eat eggs, by the time you woke up on Easter Sunday there were eggs in abundance.

As mentioned above, the Greeks painted theirs red to symbolize Christ’s blood. In Eastern Europe, a decorating technique called Pysanki grew up. This technique involves drawing patterns and designs with wax onto eggs before dyeing them, then melting the wax off to reveal the beautiful white patterns at the end. This article talks about the process and gives you tips for trying it out yourself. It includes a fun legend: “As the legend goes, the more colors on an egg, the more magic the egg contains. The storytellers say that somewhere in the world there is a giant serpent chained to the mountains; from year to year, if the amount of painted eggs increases in the world, the serpent's chains are tightened. However, if each year the number of painted eggs decreases, the serpents chains are loosened. So the ancient art must continue to flourish!”

In Germany, the tradition of the Egg Tree was popular, as families cut some budding branches from their trees, brought them inside in a vase, and then hung wooden egg ornaments on the branches. This tradition is very fun with kids, and is reminiscent of the Christmas Tree. This article shows you a few ways to do one of your own, along with some beautiful photos of eggs.

The Pennsylvania Dutch settlers had their own mix of traditions, including setting aside a Good Friday egg in the house until the next year to bring good luck. “Eggs laid on Good Friday were believed to be intrinsically holy and were set aside to be eaten for breakfast on Easter morning to prevent illness. Some of these Good Friday eggs were saved for healing and protective traditions. On many local farms, an egg consecrated by virtue of this special day was hidden in a container in the attic to protect the house from lightning storms, fire and illness. Such an egg also could be employed to relieve a hernia or to reduce a fever. Several contacts from the border of Berks and Lehigh counties not only recalled this practice but can point to jars of Good Friday water and rows of delicate Good Friday eggs saved after decades of this annual practice.” You can read more about these early American traditions in this article.

But what to do with all these decorated eggs? The Italians have an answer for us. Their Corona Pasquale is a brioche bread braided into a crown with dyed eggs in it. The trick? Using raw decorated eggs so that they will cook in the oven along with the bread. Brioche is a slow rising dough, so if you find yourself with a day at home this Easter season, perhaps give the recipe a try!