Sunday, April 27, 2008

Happy Easter again!

Happy Serbian Orthodox Easter! I only color eggs for one Easter and this is it. Last night my son and I painted some "family eggs," one for each member of our family or boyfriend/girlfriend, and one for a friend who is coming to dinner. See if you can find me. (Hint: I have a hairline crack on my chin, or rather my egg does!) The blue egg in the front with a leaf pattern is made by putting a leaf on the egg, wrapping it tightly in cheesecloth, and dropping it in the dye. The brownish one with tiny leaf patterns is made in the same way, and boiled with a lot of onion skins to obtain the pretty color. Serbs polish their eggs with a bit of cooking oil to make them shine, and have a fun custom of tapping eggs. If you're interested, drop me a note on the comments and I'll tell you what they do.

14 comments:

Chuck Pefley said...

Happy Easter! Those eggs are fantastic. So colorful and creative! When our children were still at home we did this most years as well, and we've done the onion skin method as well.

So, since you've offered ... what's tapping the eggs all about?

Halcyon said...

So cute!

vero said...

The "family eggs" is very nice, Happy Orthodox Easter.

Anonymous said...

This is a nice display. With five kids we did this too for a lot of years.

Pat said...

Thanks, all of you. Here's the tapping custom. Each person selects an Easter egg and holds it in his fist with one end exposed. His partner does the same, and one of them (doesn't matter who starts) taps his partner's egg. Usually one of the eggs will crack. Then they turn the egg around and do the same with the other end. If one egg turns out to be "victorious," then its tapper continues on with others whose egg has not cracked. Today I did two, and they both cracked. We've kept our personal eggs intact so far, and are saving them for a while.

Louis la Vache said...

Easter blessings to you and your family, Bibi!

Anonymous said...

Hristos voskrese !
All the belssing of the day to all ofyou.

iBlowfish said...

I don't see people painted "family eggs" anymore on Easter where I live, this is very cool way of tradition. Excellent shot and Happy Orthodox Easter to you.

Dan said...

What a happy scene on a happy day Bibi. Love this tradition. I am like Abe. We have (mostly) raised 6 kids and have lots of easter egg coloring memories!

Enjoy your day!

Anonymous said...

Happy Easter..
Seattle is finally warming up … thanks for showing the summer tan!!
We are going to tap our eggs later today. Hmmm… I’m thinking someone might have a bit more practice than the rest of us.
Hope all is well and say hi to the rest of the eggs for me..

Chuck Pefley said...

Bibi, so it sounds like a fun custom that's done purely for sport and enjoyment. Have I got it right? I assume you just use a finger or knuckle, or perhaps you tap the eggs together against each other? Thanks for the explanation.

Pat said...

Yep, it's egg against egg, no fingers allowed.

Anonymous said...

Love both the painting exercise and the tapping game. I think I'll introduce that in our home next Easter !

It would be interesting to learn how Judas trees are called in your country, if there's any reference to Judea, or Judas, or none of that...

Jane Hards Photography said...

This is such a lovely custom. The face painting of eggs transports me back to childhood. As for "egg against egg" action, I fear this would be banned in the UK on the grounds of health and safety. They would probably have to wear safety visors to ward off stray flying eggshell. Have fun egg tapping, without the spoilsport safety gear.

SPRING FASHION

 This is a post that would be better in color, but maybe not. These colors were soooo pale.