In ancient times, the egg was a pagan symbol of fertility and rebirth, which was widely in pagan fertility rites during spring festivals.
The Zoroastrians painted eggs for Nowrooz, their New Year celebration, which falls on the vernal [spring] equinox. Sculptures found in the ruins of Persepolis, the center of Zoroastrianism, showed people carrying eggs to the king for the occasion 2,500 years ago.
Later, after the then Emperor Constantine converted from paganism to Christianity, it was adopted by the Emperor's newly-formed "Christian" church [Roman Catholicism] to symbolize Jesus Christ's resurrection. By "christianizing" the pagan symbol and the pagan feast day associated with it, it was hoped that it would more easily convert more pagans to "Christianity" [Catholicism]. And ever since, the "christianized" egg became part of the Christian annual commemoration of Christ's resurrection.
Easter comes but once a year, but a couple in Germany have turned it into a lifetime project. For the last 40 years or so, German pensioners, Christa and Volker Kraft, have decorated a tree on their yard in Saalfeld for Easter. Today, their Easter Tree is decorated with more than 9,000 colorful Easter eggs painted with pastoral scenes and various religious icons.
The Zoroastrians painted eggs for Nowrooz, their New Year celebration, which falls on the vernal [spring] equinox. Sculptures found in the ruins of Persepolis, the center of Zoroastrianism, showed people carrying eggs to the king for the occasion 2,500 years ago.
Later, after the then Emperor Constantine converted from paganism to Christianity, it was adopted by the Emperor's newly-formed "Christian" church [Roman Catholicism] to symbolize Jesus Christ's resurrection. By "christianizing" the pagan symbol and the pagan feast day associated with it, it was hoped that it would more easily convert more pagans to "Christianity" [Catholicism]. And ever since, the "christianized" egg became part of the Christian annual commemoration of Christ's resurrection.
Easter comes but once a year, but a couple in Germany have turned it into a lifetime project. For the last 40 years or so, German pensioners, Christa and Volker Kraft, have decorated a tree on their yard in Saalfeld for Easter. Today, their Easter Tree is decorated with more than 9,000 colorful Easter eggs painted with pastoral scenes and various religious icons.
In the above photograph, Volker Kraft adds another colorfully painted Easter egg to the more than 9,000 Easter eggs which already hang on the Easter Tree on the yard of the home which he shares with his wife, Christa.
Each egg had been painstakingly emptied of its egg white and yolk to ensure that it will not go bad before it was hand-painted and hung out for all to see and enjoy.
To remove the egg white and yolk inside the egg, two tiny holes were made on each end of the egg with a hat pin, through the hole, the egg's contents were slowly blown out through a straw.
Later on, they found a better method by using a syringe pushed through one hole to extract the "goo".
One very important caution: be very careful when handling raw eggs because they may carry Salmonella.
Each egg had been painstakingly emptied of its egg white and yolk to ensure that it will not go bad before it was hand-painted and hung out for all to see and enjoy.
To remove the egg white and yolk inside the egg, two tiny holes were made on each end of the egg with a hat pin, through the hole, the egg's contents were slowly blown out through a straw.
Later on, they found a better method by using a syringe pushed through one hole to extract the "goo".
One very important caution: be very careful when handling raw eggs because they may carry Salmonella.
The above photograph shows carefully packed and intricately decorated Easter eggs waiting to be hung on the Krafts' Easter Tree.
After the Krafts' children grew to adulthood and moved out of the house, it seemed that the Easter Tree project had ended. However, when their grandsons arrived, the Krafts returned to decorating the tree, and the number of Easter eggs on the tree grew every year. In 2010, there were 9,500 egg decorations on the Krafts' Easter Tree.
No comments:
Post a Comment