Decorating Easter eggs is an old tradition throughout Central and Eastern Europe. The custom of Easter egg painting is very old, began with Christianity, and is a symbol of spring and the rebirth of nature. Easter is the most important Christian holiday and is always celebrated in the spring. After the First World War, part of eastern Romania was conquered by the Russian Federacy, and before that, the western part was occupied for hundreds of years by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a result of these people living together, the practice of painting Easter Eggs spread in many countries in Central and Eastern Europe: Romania, Moldavia, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania etc.
Romanian Exquisite Eggs are very beautiful. Each Easter decorated egg conveys a message. In one article in the Princeton Packet from New Jersey (March 24, 2006), called “The Land Beyond the Forest,” one American journalist wrote about Romanian Exquisite Eggs: “This is the unofficial Ambassador of Romanian in the US”. Another newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer (March 2008) wrote: “Exquisite Eggs Made by Romanian Artisans Are Eggs With a PhD.” “The Land Beyond the Forest” is a translation in English for the Romanian word Transylvania.
Exquisite Eggs are hand-made, painted with traditional geometric motifs, usually in red, white, yellow, blue and black. The same colors and geometric patterns appear on Romanian Ethnic Costumes, traditional fabrics and carpets. White is the symbol of purity, red is the symbol of life (blood color) and black is the symbol of fertility, representing good land for agriculture. Eggs have man lines painted on them – symbols of eternity. Yellow is the color of the sun and gold, and if somebody gives you one egg with this color on it, that means: “I wish you warmth in your heart and riches”. Blue is the symbol of the sky and water. Often eggs are painted with crosses, the image of St. Mary – symbol of Christianity – and others are painted with birds and animals – symbols of good health.
Some Easter eggs are made for decorative purposes. They occur especially in the villages of Romania, where they are decorated by talented artisan women, who learn the decorating process from their mothers or grandmothers. Also, eggs are decorated or painted in the monasteries of Bukovina, a very beautiful region in Northeast Romania. First, the eggs are washed and de-greased; then a small hole is made at the bottom of the egg, and the contents are removed. Then the part that will remain white is traced onto the eggshell with a colorless wax. Talented women apply the model manually, using pens and fine brushes. More old tools for painting are made from sharp goose or duck feathers. The paints are extracted from plants. The recipes are centuries old, and are carefully preserved and passed down from generation to generation in each family of artisans.
Decorative Eggs are found in Romanian Art Folk Museums and in the Romanian Monasteries, and are bought by tourists as souvenirs. In the USA, an impressive collection of over 1,000 decorated eggs are available at the Romanian Folk Art Museum in Philadelphia. Around Easter, the museum organizes an exhibition and egg sale. The price of an egg painted by artisans of Bukovina ranges between $ 12-35 for duck eggs; $ 50-70 for goose eggs and around $ 100 for chicken or quail eggs.
For over 30 years, Mrs. Rodica Perciali, teacher and founder of the Romanian Art Folk Museum in Philadelphia, has organized over 200 presentations in showrooms, schools, churches, WTC and universities across the USA, teaching about Romanian culture, folk art and traditions. In the Romanian Museum there is a huge ostrich egg, which is painted with Romanian geometric motifs. Other eggs were painted by nuns or an artisan from Bukovina, dyed or exquisitely hand-painted with traditional designs and, more recently, hand decorated with small colored wax with very intricate designs, including crosses, geometric patterns, animals and plants.
Rodica Perciali called an artisan from Romania and they performed a live demonstration, showing the Romanian method of decorating Easter eggs, ceramics, and rugs that have appeared on U.S. television and in the American news media. She has gotten repeated coverage by NBC, ABC, CNN, WGN, Fox News and so on. Mrs. Rodica Perciali was awarded with the title of “Outstanding New American Citizen” in 1987, in Chicago, and she has received several grants and prizes because she has dedicated her entire life tor promotinf Romanian culture and traditions in North America.
Another way to know more about Romanian holidays and traditions is offered by events in the USA with Romanian artisans or folk dance ensembles. Now appearing is a preview of the exhibition “The traditional Maramures Rugs of Victoria Berbecaru and Mircea Cantor’s Flying Carpet” to La Maison Française. The Romanian Cultural Institute from New York, and the Embassy of Romania to the US, prepared this meeting, which will start March 28 at “La Maison Francaise” in Washington, D.C.
Regular Easter Eggs Decoration Methods
Eggs consumed during the Easter holidays are decorated in every Romanian house by other methods than Exquisite Hand Made. First, it is necessary to collect clover leaves and other leaves with interesting shapes. Then, the eggs are washed with detergent and drained. After that, we apply on the skin of each egg, one or two of these wet leaves. The egg should be wrapped carefully in thin nylon stockings (colored leg stockings that are found in many stores). The stocking is linked closely with normal sewing. The reason is to protect eggshell, so that the colors in between leaf and eggshell do not blend.
The eggs are then placed in a pot, on the bottom of which were put dry onion peels, from white and red onions, and a few tablespoons of vinegar and some salt. After boiling, the yellow peels make the eggs yellow, and the red peels make red-colored eggs. If one pot has a combination of peels, the eggs end up orange or brown. After 10-15 minutes, the eggs are removed from the water and left to cool. Eggs are then smeared with wax, oil, bacon or pork fat, to gain luster and close the pores of eggshell. Last year, my eggs were colored with chemical dyes and I applied decals with Romanian traditional models.
Sometimes, Easter Eggs are decorated with wax, and then dipped in red paint. The part covered by wax remain white; the rest of the egg is colored red. My mom usually made eggs for Easter in red and white.
If you want to get more colors, cover the remaining white part first, then paint the egg in a light colored paint, for example yellow. Then, cover with wax the parts that you want to remain yellow and sink the egg in dark paint, for example red. After that, cover with wax the parts that you want to stay red. Lastly, apply black, to draw lines or arabesques and add custom colors with a fine brush.
A modern method of dyeing eggs at Easter is to use chemical dyes
Eggs are boiled in salt water with 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar. Then put into pots with colored food dyes, usually red, yellow, blue, green and purple. Then the eggs are decorated with decals or adhesive stickers, with traditional Easter patterns – angels, saints, crosses, chicks, flowers, leaves, rabbits and so on. On Easter Day, after the Resurrection Service at the church, eggs is collide by the family members in memory of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, one of the common habits of the Christian religion.
The next day (the second day of Easter), the men dress in Romanian ethnic costumes and go to the homes of Romanian friends “the wet” girls. They spray the girls and women with perfume and say short traditional greeting poems about prosperity, health and wealth, like this: “I heard that you have a flower here/ Because today’s holiday / I came to perfume her/ Let’s bring happiness, health and love / In order to not wilt / For many years to live / Wealth to receive.” Women serve them eggs painted and decorated in the house and with cake. This Easter tradition is usually kept in Transylvania, the western part of Romania and in Hungary.
Published in http://sanderscornertimes.pbworks.com/w/page/37957960/Holidays-and-Traditions
