Easter - the holiday of the bright Resurrection of Christ - is always a holiday of goodness and light, love and warmth. On this day, it is customary to go to visit family and friends and exchange Easter gifts and cards, “say Christ”, and throw a generous Easter feast for friends, acquaintances and even strangers who have come to see the light.

According to church tradition, eggs need to be painted on Maundy Thursday. According to tradition, on Maundy Thursday you need to take a swim in the morning, restore cleanliness and order in the house - in this case, dirt will bypass your home for a whole year. And then start preparing ritual dishes - Easter cakes, Easter cottage cheese and colored eggs, which must be blessed in the church on Holy Saturday.

Since ancient times, since ancient pre-Christian times, the egg has been a symbol of nascent and renewed life. Many customs that existed among different nations. For example, in pagan antiquity, in some places in Rus', an egg was placed in the foundation of a house so that the work of the builders would progress, and happiness and well-being would not leave the future owners.

For Christians, a painted egg (krashenka) is a symbol of Easter.

According to legend, Mary Magdalene, who was the first to see the resurrected Jesus Christ, hastened to convey this news to the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Since it was not customary to go to his reception without offerings, the poor woman took an egg with her as a gift. Allegedly, after listening to Mary's story, the emperor exclaimed that such a resurrection from the dead is impossible, just as it is impossible for an egg to change its color from white to red - and immediately this happened. Since then, it has been customary to give painted eggs.

FROM THE HISTORY OF PAINTED EGGS

There is a simple historical explanation for the widespread custom of dyeing eggs. In Christianity, which began with the preaching of Jesus Christ in ancient Judea in the 1st century AD, it was forbidden to eat eggs during the 7-week Lent.

But since the laying hens did not want to adapt to church calendar, eggs laid during fasting had to be preserved in some way so that they would not spoil.

To do this, the eggs were hard-boiled for at least 20-25 minutes (i.e., sterilized) in a decoction of onion peels. When cooked in this way, the onion broth substances fill the micropores of the shell, and such eggs do not spoil for a very long time - the result is “sterilized canned food” in a shell impenetrable to microbes. (Other vegetable dyes for eggs do not give such a “preservative” effect.)

So in those ancient times, when nothing was known about microbes and their role in food spoilage, people empirically found good way Keep eggs for a long time.

After the long 7-week Lent, which ended on Easter, Christians not only consumed many of the preserved colored eggs for food, but also gave them away to their fellow believers. Already among the early Christians in Judea (Jews) and Egypt (Copts), it became a good custom to give colored eggs to fellow Christians as a symbol of the common faith.

There is even a custom to store donated colored eggs for a whole year until next Easter - if there is no very high humidity, eggs boiled with onion skins do not spoil, but the contents of the shell gradually dry out and decrease in size, after a few months turning into a small hard glassy ball.

The life of the first Christians, in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. who heroically fought for independence against the vastly superior legions of mighty Ancient Rome, was difficult and complex. If necessary, the dried ball of preserved colored egg could be mixed with water and eaten.

As a result of the efforts of Christians in 313, in the pagan Roman Empire, which had previously fought against Christians, Christianity was accepted as the state religion (Emperor Constantine and his mother Helen). And the first state in history in which Christianity was adopted as the state religion was Armenia (301).

Modern Christians not only serve colored eggs at the festive Easter table: it is customary to give them to each other throughout the entire Easter week– Bright Week (from Easter Sunday until the next St. Thomas Sunday).

PAINTED EGGS IN RUSSIAN ORTHODOXY

Previously in Rus', it was customary to lay painted Easter eggs on freshly sprouted oats, wheat, and sometimes on soft green tiny leaves of watercress, which were specially sprouted in advance for the holiday.

On Easter folk festivals Games with eggs were often held. For example, in villages they “rolled” eggs. They chose a small, flat piece of land and trampled it down to make a flat area. Shallow holes were made in the ground. Each of the participants brought their own painted eggs, which were laid out in holes. The task of each participant was to roll out the egg he liked from the hole - then he became the winner. The eggs were rolled out using a special rag ball with flattened sides, similar to a wheel.

Over time, eggs began to be made from wood and painted with ornaments and patterns (they were called eggs).

Later eggs made of porcelain, silver and precious stones. In pre-revolutionary Russia, the firm of the jeweler Faberge was very successful in making precious Easter eggs.

Easter eggs Faberge company:

An egg painted in broth is called krashenka, a painted egg (usually the empty shell is painted) is called pysanka, and painted eggs wooden eggs- eggs.

HOW TO PAINT EGGS

1. Before painting, the eggs need to be degreased so that the paint lays evenly. To do this, soak them in lukewarm water for 5-10 minutes, then wash them with a foam sponge with warm water and soap and rinse thoroughly.

2. To prevent eggs from cracking during cooking, “warm” them after refrigeration - keep them warm for 1 hour (at room temperature) or put them in warm water for 10-20 minutes, and when cooking, add 1 teaspoon of table salt to the water.

3. To make the color more saturated, add a little vinegar to the water with the dye (acetic acid corrodes the shell, making the surface rougher and more susceptible to dyes).

4. If you wipe the finished colored eggs with a cloth soaked in sunflower oil after drying, they will become shiny, as if varnished.

Some families maintain the custom of dyeing eggs “speckled.” To do this, wet eggs are rolled in dry rice, wrapped in gauze (the ends of the gauze must be tied tightly with thread so that the rice sticks to the egg) and then boiled in onion skins in the usual way. In the same way, before boiling, various leaves and small flowers (fresh or dried) can be pressed onto the egg, resulting in different patterns.

For a marbled effect, wrap the eggs in onion skins (you can take them from onions different colors) and tie tightly on top with some white cotton fabric, gauze or nylon stocking.

The recommendation to boil eggs wrapped in multi-colored threads or scraps of fabric in order to obtain interesting colored patterns is absolutely unacceptable, because... To dye threads and fabrics, toxic chemical dyes are used, which are obviously not food-grade.

Dyed eggs, colored in a decoction of onion peels with the pressure of various leaves.

A painted ostrich egg surrounded by chicken eggs.
To boil a hard-boiled ostrich egg, you need to cook for 1.5-2.5 hours, depending on the size.

Eggs, colored inside. In order for the eggs to be colored from the inside and not the outside, you need to boil them for 3-4 minutes, then take them out and in some places pierce the shell with a needle according to a certain pattern or break the shell a little by beating it on the table, and then boil for another 8-10 minutes in a strong teahouse tea leaves with the addition of spices - cloves, cinnamon, coriander, etc.

To submit to Easter table eggs can be dyed WITHOUT SHELLS. Hard-boiled eggs (7-8 minutes of boiling) are peeled and immersed in a solution of vegetable food coloring (see below), where they are colored either by holding for quite a long time without heating (up to several hours), or in a hot solution, or for several minutes at boiling .
Then apply some other paint onto the egg with a brush. food coloring, you can get various patterns and inscriptions (for example - ХВ).

Easter snack made from peeled and then dyed different colors eggs, sprinkled with chopped herbs and garnished with deviled eggs, pickled mushrooms, black olives and green peas.

To color eggs, it is best to use onion peels, which are collected in advance. Depending on the color of the husk, the color of the eggs ranges from light red to dark brown. If you want the color to be more saturated, you need to take more husks and cook them for about half an hour before putting the eggs in the broth.
Almost purple eggs are obtained from the skins of red onions.
You can also paint with birch leaves or other vegetable food dyes - beet broth, spinach, etc. (see below).

There are two methods of coloring:

1) boil in a decoction of vegetable food coloring (onion skins or other);

2) first boil the eggs, and then dip them in the dye. The painting time is selected depending on the strength of the dye, from several minutes to hours.

Nowadays there are a large number of different egg dyeing kits on sale. Typically, these sets use food coloring, which produces bright and rich colors, and in combination with various Easter stickers, you can make very interesting compositions.
Still, it is better to use traditional vegetable dyes for Easter eggs.

NATURAL PLANT DYES FOR EGGS

Here are the colors you can get using various vegetable and fruit paints:

Traditional from beige to red-brown - “ocher”
4 cups yellow onion skins. Boil for 10-60 minutes. The amount of husk and the duration of boiling affect the color saturation.

"Red ocher"
4 cups red onion skins. Boil eggs for 10-60 minutes. Depending on the cooking time, the eggs will turn from bright scarlet to dark red.

"Gilding"
Add 2-3 tbsp to hot water. spoons of turmeric, boil so that the color is more intense. To obtain a yellow color, you can also use saffron infusion.

Pink
Soak boiled eggs in cranberry, strawberry or beet juice.

Orange – carrot juice

Gray-blue – mashed blueberries or blueberry juice

Purple – beet broth, beet juice

Violet
Add violet flowers to hot water and soak overnight. If you add a little to the water lemon juice, you get a lavender color.

Green
Into the mixture to obtain purple with violets (see previous composition) add 1 tsp of soda.

Green
Boil eggs with chopped spinach.

Blue
Two heads of finely chopped red cabbage, 500 ml of water and 6 tbsp. spoons of 9% table vinegar. Soak overnight to create a deep blue color.

Lavender
Soak eggs in grape juice.

Pastel shades
For soft pinks and blues, rub the shells with a handful of blueberries or cranberries.

Dark brown
Boil eggs in 250 ml of coffee.
You can also use strong tea leaves.

You can also use dried nettle, which is sold in pharmacies. Eggs boiled with it will have a green tint.
A few bags of chamomile tea will help turn eggs yellow and mallow tea will turn them pink.

In the old days, eggs were not only painted (krashenki), but also painted with wax (pysanky).

There are certain rules for painting eggs that cannot be violated. All drawings on the egg should be arranged in a very clear pattern. It is believed that the structure of the Universe is contained in the egg, therefore the design cannot be modified arbitrarily.

Meanings of the symbols used when painting Easter eggs:
White color- the beginning of all beginnings: destiny, which is built in the sky.
Black color is the color of sorrow. A bright pattern was necessarily applied to the black base.
The child was given pysanka on a cherry background, but not on a black one.
Pine is a symbol of health.
The dove is a symbol of the soul.
The mesh is a symbol of fate.
The yellow mesh is a symbol of the sun and destiny, which is being built here.
The oak tree is a symbol of strength.
The dots are a symbol of fertility.
Plums are a symbol of love.
Hops are a symbol of fertility.
Any berry is a symbol of fertility; mother.
Flowers are a symbol of girlhood.

Today, the arsenal has a wide variety of means of decorating eggs and making them original jewelry for the holiday.

Some “secrets” of painting eggs:
Secret 1. For painting, blown eggs (i.e., eggshells) are used. Using the tip of a darning needle or awl, carefully pierce the shell of a raw egg, making two small holes at the blunt and sharp ends. Blow the contents into a plate through the hole - the whites and yolks can still be useful for preparing Easter dishes.
Secret 2. Blown and painted eggs can be hung on a branch: you will need a thin strong cord and matches. Tie one end of the cord in a knot exactly in the middle of the match. Holding the free end of the cord, lower the match through one of the holes into the cavity of the blown egg. Now you can hang them from the branches: once in a horizontal position inside the egg, the match will get stuck, securely securing the cord.
Secret 3. For painting, use the following materials: gouache, acrylic paints, multi-colored markers. Apply the tone with a piece of sponge or a cotton swab, and apply the pattern with a semi-dry brush.
Secret 4. Use sticker paper for appliques. Cut out figures from it with nail scissors and stick them on blown eggs. Color the eggs. When the surface is dry, peel off the paper figures and use a thin brush to apply silver to the unpainted areas.
Secret 5. Eggs can be decorated with beads and seed beads: this can be done using PVA glue and tweezers.

painting eggshells wax
(very labor intensive, but fun)

We take a stick as thick as a pencil, 15 cm long, and drive a nail at one end at a right angle to the stick - we get the letter G with the tip of the nail sticking out.

We put a divider on the gas, and on it a small metal container in which we heat the wax (a burning candle in a metal candlestick will also do),

We dip our “hand” there and draw various patterns on the boiled egg with wax. This is painstaking work, because... Every time I get short strokes.

Then the wax quickly hardens, and we dip the egg into paint diluted in water.

After the egg has colored in this solution, remove it and carefully wipe off the wax with a dry cloth. This procedure can be repeated again, then the egg will have several colors of the pattern, but you need to take into account that each layer of paint will change the previous one.

Painting scheme in three colors using wax:
- first, patterns are drawn on a white egg with wax and the egg is painted yellow,
- patterns are drawn again with wax and the egg is painted red;
- draw patterns further and paint the egg black;
- after coloring, the egg is heated a little and the softened wax is cleaned with a napkin.

CHISINAU, April 5 – Sputnik. The head of the municipal public health center, Luminita Suveike, spoke in a commentary about the risks posed by dyes for Easter eggs.

"Personally, I prefer natural dyes - onion skins - the eggs turn out very beautiful golden color. But if someone needs scarlet eggs, then they need to choose food coloring,” the interlocutor said.

According to her, the packaging should indicate that it is food coloring, and also describe the composition and shelf life. The doctor emphasized that you cannot buy paint for eggs outside specialized retail outlets.

“You can’t buy paint for eggs in the middle of the street, by the spoonful, when you don’t know what they’re slipping into our hands. If the shell cracks during cooking and the white becomes colored, then we can already say that the paint is not of very high quality. In general, it’s better to use natural dyes. Some also use parsley leaves , and decorate the eggs in some other way. I recommend natural dyes,” Suweike said.

© Sputnik / Mikhail Mordasov

How long can eggs be stored?

According to her, colored eggs can be stored for a maximum of two days. As the specialist noted, it is not recommended to leave them in the refrigerator until Radunitsa (memorial days), since the eggs will no longer be edible.

"It is not recommended for food to sit on the table for more than two hours. This is undesirable. And in general, you need to be careful, since now merchants are offering various products. There was a fast, and now they need to sell the goods. I recommend buying products in authorized places. Even pay attention when buying eggs at appearance goods,” Suweike added.

How to choose eggs?

• The shell must be intact and clean.
• The white and yolk should be clean, without any stains.
• Pay attention to the smell of eggs, as there may be spoiled ones.
• Eggs must be stamped with the date of production.

Even atheists paint eggs at Easter - simply because the tradition is beautiful. Meanwhile, a large number of boiled eggs throughout the country these days often leads to post-holiday stomach problems among their consumers. And all because of improper cooking or storage of the Easter symbol...

Take advantage of the portal's advice , so that you can enjoy Easter eggs and not get yourself into trouble.

By the way!

Did you know that our ancestors, when painting eggs before Easter, put a very specific meaning into their own drawings? The hops and dots on the egg were symbols of fertility, the oak tree was a symbol of strength, and the dove was a symbol of the soul. Wishing someone close to them good health, they gave him an egg with a pine tree on it, and when expressing a feeling of love to someone, they put a picture of plums on the Easter egg.

Among the symbols there are also those that relate only to women (apparently because it was women who painted Easter eggs). The berries in the picture symbolized the mother and the woman, her ability to reproduce and care for offspring, and the flowers on the egg, on the contrary, testified to the girl’s purity.

The mesh, which was considered a symbol of fate, played a special role in painting eggs. If it was white or applied to White background, then symbolized fate, which is built in the sky, and if it was yellow, then on the earth.