Easter is a Christian and Bulgarian national holiday related to the idea of Christ's Resurrection. The holiday has an indefinite date, in Eastern Orthodoxy it is celebrated on the Sunday after the first spring full moon (it can be from April 4 to May 8). Preparation for the holiday begins in the week before Easter, called Passion.
Easter eggs: It is not known when eggs first began to be dyed. There is historical and archaeological evidence that eggs were dyed and donated as far back as ancient Egypt, Persia, Rome, China and Greece. The rituals associated with them symbolized the beginning of life.
As a Christian religious symbol, the egg originally represented the tomb of Christ and the stone that was rolled away. Later, the association changed due to the established custom of dyeing the eggs red - the blood of Christ.
Bulgarian customs:
In Bulgaria, it is a tradition to paint eggs on Maundy Thursday, and their number depends on the members of the family and the number of hens. The first is always dyed red by the oldest woman, who makes with it, while it is still warm and freshly dyed, the sign of the cross on the foreheads of the children. After this ritual, the young women in the house take over the painting.
Until the advent of artificial dyes, decoctions of herbs, nuts, etc. were used. Red dye was obtained with a decoction of oregano, orange with sumac, green with nettles, yellow with walnuts and apple skins or a decoction of old onion.
Whenever eggs were painted, a separate basket was also prepared for the best men. An egg was also given to each guest who crossed the threshold. Imprints of parsley leaves or figurines drawn with wax or colored pencils were used for additional decoration. According to belief, the one whose egg remains he althy after the beating (borak) will be the he althiest during the year.
The production of chocolate eggs began in the 18th century. Wooden ones have been known for a long time, and in the 60s of the 20th century, plastic ones were also sold. Peter Carl Faberge's decorative eggs, made of precious stones and precious metals, are exceptional in their beauty and brilliance.
Our family uses many techniques when dyeing eggs for Easter - wax, olive oil, beads, colored rice, crystals, petals, brocade glue, pictures, these new pictures that stick on by dipping in hot water, alum and many many more, and here's how some of them apply:
– With petals
Use leaves from grasses or small flowers and bushes - maybe more than one leaf for one egg. They carefully adhere to the still warm boiled egg, wrap it in a thin material /most successfully from pantyhose/ and tie it tightly, then dip it in the desired color of paint. If it is successively dipped in several colors, it becomes a real work of art. My grandmother always drips one drop of oil into the paint, and then if you alternate dipping in the different colors, you get interesting combinations.
– With oil, alum, tutkal, wax and onion flakes
– a little oil poured into the pans with the paint gives whimsical patterns to the egg, it can be dipped successively in several paints in which fat has also been poured beforehand.
– if a piece of alum is added to the paint, the eggs are covered with frost or frost.
However, they should not be greased after painting.
– the ten fingers are dipped in melted, slightly thin tutkal, then they are successively balled in the different colors.
– wax drawings are made on warm, freshly boiled eggs. I personally use Bulgarian folk motifs in several colors. After each use of a paraffin drawing, I dip in a different paint - starting with yellow.
– a handful of old onion skins are chopped with a knife – like noodles, sprinkled on an old sock and the raw egg is placed on top of them. It is tied well and placed in a vessel and boiled. After that, it is not taken out of the sock, but put into the paint together with it.
– With tartaric acid
Eggs are boiled in tartaric acid/bought from the pharmacy/.
It makes them rough and as if sprinkled with crystals.
Then they are painted whatever color you want.
They become most beautiful when different colors are dripped on cotton and the egg is wrapped with this cotton. Lasts about 5-6 min.
– With crystals, needlepoint and leaves
1st option
The eggs are boiled together with the crystals.
Drip all the dyes onto cotton enough to wrap the egg and wrap the egg. After 2-3 minutes, it's ready, colorful and sparkling with crystals.
Second option
Eggs are painted with denser and stronger colors and with an awl or needle they are drawn on.
III-variant
A leaf of grass (clover, chrysanthemum, etc.) is placed on top of the egg, wrapped with a piece of old pantyhose, tied and dipped in paint. After painting, it is developed and glossy.
Instead of a leaf, you can also put figures cut out of paper.
– With old onion skins
Place old onion skins on top of the raw eggs, arrange them in different directions, wrap them with gauze, tie with a thread and boil several of them in different colors for ten minutes.
They are removed from the paint, the skins are removed carefully and after they cool, they are smeared with a little oil.
– With wax
With a special tool for drawing on eggs that works with wax, we draw old-time initials.
Then we boil the eggs and when they are boiled we paint them and the wax falls off the egg but the beautiful patterns remain which make the egg the most original of all!
– With cotton
We paint the eggs in several ways, but we make them the most colorful by taking a ball of cotton, spread it out and put a spoonful of each color on the cotton to soak it well. We wrap the egg and let it stand longer than normal dyeing. This is how they become with many iridescent colors. Finally, we polish with oil.
I personally like this method with cotton and the one with paper the best:
I cut out of paper (from the white margins of the newspapers a cross, a dove, a flower, a butterfly, etc.), wet them slightly and stick them on the boiled egg.
I tie them in a piece of pantyhose and drop them in the appropriate color, sometimes when I take the picture down I drop them in another appropriate color. I am also attaching pictures of Easter eggs obtained by this method.
Wishing everyone HAPPY HOLIDAYS!:)
