You guys all know that I love to get creative around the holidays, and Spring holidays are the perfect time for decorating…eggs, that is!
Now I’m very familiar with the Christian tradition of decorating Easter Eggs, but when I was doing some research on the origins of this tradition, I discovered that the gift of decorated eggs at springtime has been around for millennia.
The ancient Persians gave decorated eggs as gifts for the festival or Nowruz (celebrated on the spring equinox). To this day, decorated eggs are still part of the Haft Sin table (haft sin stands for ‘seven S’s – a table containing seven items beginning with the word S) during Zoroastrian Nowruz celebrations.
Eggs are also a traditional part of the Jewish Passover Seder. One of the six items on the seder plate is Beitzah: A roasted egg, symbolizing the korban chagigah (festival sacrifice) that was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and was then eaten as part of the meal on Seder night.
And it’s also said that the Saxons in England celebrated the festival of Eostre on the vernal equinox with gifts of eggs. Eostre is also said to be identified with the hare, so perhaps this is the origin of the Easter bunny (and his proclivity for eggs).
In Slavic countries, they’ve taken the art of egg decorating to incredible artistic lengths, most recognizably with the famous Ukranian pysanky:
In many Northern European countries, eggs are dyed using natural products, as in this image where they are dyed by boiling in water while wrapped in onion skins, creating a beautiful marbled effect:
But the way I always dyed eggs as a kid was the traditional food-colouring bath. It’s so much more economical than the kits available at craft stores and supermarkets, and yields beautiful, pastel-coloured eggs:
- Food coloring
- Hot water
- White vinegar
For each colour measure 1/4 tsp. food coloring in small bowl. Add 3/4 cup hot water and 1 tbsp. white vinegar to each color (vinegar is what sets the dye). Add eggs and allow to sit until they are the desired color. Remove with slotted spoon. If you wish, you can polish dry eggs with a small amount of cooking oil to give them a slight shine.
The onion skin dyed eggs remind me of my childhood. My Polish Babcia used to make those for us! Great memories!
Thanks! This is really great information and we will be doing the traditional dying route this weekend. Happy Easter!
thanks for this post! I’m going to be decorating eggs this weekend with my lil girl. I had no idea about the vinegar. 😀