Painted Eggs – tradition art in Romania

In some Orthodox countries there is a tradition of skilfully painting eggs before Easter. The tradition is very vivid in areas of Romania like Bukovina (the Nordic part of Moldova). A legend has it that when Jesus Christ was crucified, Mary Magdalene came at the feet of the cross with a basket of food she had bought. The blood of the Lord dropped over the eggs in the basket, turning them red. Following this legend, Christians in the East started painting eggs in red in the Thursday before Easter. This is still done in every Romanian family, using a simple method, by dipping the boiled eggs into a pot with food dye.
But of hundreds of years, in villages of Bukovina, this custom was turned into an art. To paint the eggs, the peasants don’t use synthetic dyes, but rather natural herbs. They can obtain red from apple leaves, madder, wild rose, green from walnut leaves, sunflower, yellow from peel onions, privet, blue from violet flowers, black from nutshell and alder. The decorations are usually geometric, various shapes of flowers and animals, but got to the point where entire icons like “The last supper” or “Madonna with Child” were painted on an hen egg. To achieve this, the peasants use the simplest tool (called kishitze), a stick with an iron tip. With this, they apply molten wax on the desired pattern of the first color. Then they dip the egg in the lightest color to be used. When heated, the protective wax melts away, and a new pattern can be added. Then another dip in a different color, and so on.
As these little works of art began to be collected, popular artists are preparing them for the buyers. The substance of the egg is taken out through a tiny hall before boiling, so the crust is more resistant in time.
The symbolic aspect of painting and knocking eggs on Easter is far more important than the folkloric aspect later developed.

Eggs are nowadays used mostly for decoration, but also for ‘knocking’. People knock an egg against one belonging to another family member, or a close friend. The one whose egg doesn’t crack is the winner. They call out ‘Hristos a înviat!’ (‘Christ has risen!’) and the others answer: ‘Adevarat a înviat!’ (‘It’s true He has risen!’).

QUESTION 1: Who paint eggs for Easter ?

a ) the orthodox

b ) the mussulman

c ) no one

QUESTION 2: In which part of Romania,painting eggs is a very vivid tradition?

a ) in Oltenia

b ) in Bukovina

c ) in Transylvania

QUESTION 3 : Painting eggs is.....?

a ) a very difficult method

b ) an unknown method

c ) a simple method

QUESTION 4 : To paint the eggs, the peasants  use……?

a ) naturals herbs

b ) synthetic dyes

c ) stickers

QUESTION 5 : After  painting,what  covered the eggs ?

a ) molten wax

b ) varnish

c ) melted sugar

By Prof. Liana Moraru