Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Geo Rusu

April 23, 2006

The Romanian Easter Tradition,

                         The Egg’s symbol of the Easter

Geo Rusu

Geosays@gmail.com

    This year the Romanian Orthodox Easter is on April 23rd, at the same anniversary when we celebrate St.George`s Day, in the Orthodox Church calendar. There are a lot of rituals and ceremonies during the seven weeks before Easter each year in the Orthodox Church.

  I will write a few ideas regarding the Romanian people’s beliefs about what we think and say about eggs. I will make just a few references about the history and practice of the Romanian people at Easter.

  We know from very early times in our human history that all the people of Asia and Europe celebrated the coming of the New Year at the Spring Equinox, the period of the year when modern people celebrate Easter.

In addition, during Easter the people offered each other very nice colored eggs as a symbol of abundance, fertility, and mutual affection and sympathy. The eggs had been painted in different colors, but the red one was the preferable color for many nations.

Late in history, the day for celebrating the New Year had moved to the Winter Solstice, the period of the year when the hens do not lay eggs or laid eggs only in very small amounts, but the people invented other gifts to be offered each other, as symbol of affection for that period.

In this, period people offer each other multi-colored eggs as sign and symbol of love, affection and sympathy.

This custom was transmitted to Christians from pagan and Jewish people, and in our modern times it spread also into Italy, Spain, France, mostly in Provence, and thus in all Europe,  eventually crossing the ocean to North America, etc.

What make us to believe that this custom has been transmitted is the fact that the custom at the Pascal Celebration, of the Jewish women who laid on the table the hard-boiled eggs as symbol of mythological bird, which translates into many legends all over the world.

During the times of our Roman ancestors, the young people painted eggs in red and offered them along with other gifts during  the Janus Festivals. People also used eggs in different games.

In the Rome, capital of the Empire, eggs have used in some religious ceremonies during Roman Empire period.

It has told, that the egg has the meaning of the World Creator, who produced all and contains all in self.

For the Persian, Egyptian, Greek, Galls people, and the first people of Italy, the egg was the emblem of the Universe, the masterpiece of the Supreme Divinity.

In the beginning of the world, the Old Persian people said, that nothing exist except God. The dark of the chaos reigned over the Space. finally, an egg appeared. The night covered it with its wings, and the thus fecundated egg which opened: and the Sun and the Moon came out and rose up.  Because the Earth was heavy, it laid down in all its chambers. The story of primordial night, the egg, the Sun and the Moon have never been forgotten from the mind of all those ancestral people who made thousands of sacred hymns, moreover to keep alive `The Beginning of the humanity… ` they kept the symbol of those colored eggs for memorizing of the Eternal Return.

Perhaps, from the Old Persian people, Moshe borrowed the following words: “At the beginning, God fecundated the waters, soaring above them, as the hen hatches her egg.”

In the South America, during the New Year’s Holiday, the people, celebrate this big event of the year by the custom of clearing out the eggs, replenishing them with perfumed water, and throwing them to each other through their the windows of their homes; resembling the Italian custom of throwing confetti during their carnivals.

Romanian people place a high value on red eggs being a main preoccupation for each Romanian family in the week before Easter. There are many legends and stories regarding Easter eggs   about Jesus during his life.

Nevertheless, here in this article I want to tell you about the Romanian tradition regarding eggs, the colors and design made by village people.

There is an old popular technology to make colors from the plants; and Romania is famous for its variety of medicinal plants, to prepare medical tea, for healing, to make different colors, etc.

The first colored egg, which is for color test is called `cearca`, it is given in the morning of Easter to the youngest member of the family. This egg is used for eating and has the following ritual; first they have to bring a piece of the green earth from the courtyard into their house. Then children will eat the egg without saying anything while turning around that piece of green earth.

After that, the shell of the egg is filled with dough, paste, will be placed on the beam, on the girder, for good luck all the year. The family members have to throw the used green earth in the courtyard.

The Romanian Easter eggs have many types of design.

The eggs are painted with different designs of flowers, crosses, drops, leaf of oak trees, leafs of the fir tree, etc., There a lot of creativity in the egg designs of the Romanian village people.

The tools for the egg designs are specific and very sophisticated. For example, the ` chisita` or `pisita` is a kind of stick that is thin, round and about 5 inches long. Inside there is another thin tube, a kind of pipe, made by brass, made also from classical pipe.

The various tools for decorating are quite interesting. Moreover, all of them are strong and fasten with bristles. These kinds of tools are nowadays used by old women or men of the village. Certainly there are more modern types, but we can see these old tools in the diligent hands of the grandmothers and grandfathers; artisans of an era long gone by.

After the eggs are boiled and nicely painted. They are glazed with little wax to give the eggs their brilliant colors. On the first day of Easter people give, each other their beautiful eggs as souvenir as well as a love and sympathy symbol.

During a Romania Easter, the custom is to strike and break the eggs. The senior member of the family is in charge of striking the egg of a younger family member. The young ones are very excited to see which egg will be broken or cracked.

The owner of the unbroken or cracked egg, after the crack phase, is the winner, regardless age, sex, etc.

The proud man/lady owner of the strongest egg will keep it against another eggs` break / crack custom.

The person who loses has to give his or her egg to the winner.

Therefore, the order is established and friendship becomes stronger.

This family ritual begins shortly after midnight of the first Easter Day, and will continue with neighbors, friends, every man, women, child, etc., who one may meet during the Easter Holiday.

The custom of cracking eggs continues until after the 40 days of the Easter.

Some Romanian village women have a custom of emptying  the eggs and then using paper, they attach a head, wings and tail to make a pigeon which will hang at the entrance door or in front of the family main Christian Icon.

Here, in my short article, I described just a few ideas and some of the elements of Romanian Easter tradition.

Romania is famous for its beautiful tradition which is very varied, has plenty of significances, and its importance consists in its greatness, which offers everybody who wants to find it, the magnificent moment of the dawn of the humanity.

                                                     Geo RUSU