This Web Provide Egg Painting and Eggs Around the World

Egg Painting and Eggs Around the World

Egg Painting

Judeo-Christian culture was not the first and it is far from the only society to have found the egg's alabaster shell an ideal canvas. Egg coloring preceded Christianity itself by almost a millennium with evidence found indicating that the Chinese were adorning eggs at least as early as 900 B.C.

Common threads join virtually all forms of egg art. Anthropological studies almost universally find the egg to be a symbol of fertility and rebirth, with its artistic manifestations at the core of many religious belief systems. As such, ritualistic ornamentation of eggs most often revolved around specific holidays or general celebrations associated with spring.

Easter and Lenten egg painting found their roots, in part, in the pre-Christian traditions of the people of northern Europe. Colored eggs of migratory birds returning from warmer climates marked the return of spring to many in the north. It is speculated that artistic renderings on eggs probably occurred as domestication of fowl created a larger supply of white and brown eggs. Dyes using local vegetation then came to furnish a reasonable substitute for colored eggs once provided by the travelling harbingers of the earth's annual rebirth.

Roman and Orthodox Christian missionaries moved the metaphor a step further, as they sought to blend these ancient traditions with the message of spiritual renewal represented in the Resurrection. Egg art evolved to include intricate ornamentation replete with Christian symbols, iconography, and portraits.

Eggs Around the World

Egg painting became such a potent religious symbol and an enjoyable celebratory ritual, that the practice spread to other faiths.

Judaism employed the practice of colored eggs for Passover borrowing from Christian Paschal celebrations. Historic belief in its Christian origins is derived from the observation that only in those communities where Jews and Christians lived together, primarily in Eastern Europe, did Jews color eggs for their Passover festivities. Similarly, Lag B'Omer, which falls chronologically between the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Christian holy day of Pentecost, is often celebrated with a family picnic featuring colored eggs that represent the rainbow and god's promise to Noah and the Jews.

Reacting to the popularity of Easter and Passover celebrations in the Middle East, Saladin created the holiday of Khamis al-Amwat (Dead Remembrance Thursday) adding it to the Muslim calendar in the twelfth century. Observed on the first Thursday after Easter, it features two Pascal traditions -- the distribution of colored gift eggs to children and solemn reflection of the contributions of one's departed ancestors.

Artistic evolution in Central Europe brought with it a change in hue, as many Christian societies replaced the Easter egg's original pastel colors with shades of deep crimson, representing the blood, passion, suffering, purification embodied in the crucifixion of Christ. Other Christian enclaves went further, in some cases emblazoning eggs with elaborate colors and patterns or etchings, then preserving them with coats of resin. Many of these eggs became family and personal heirlooms, true works of art, designed for display not consumption and made to last for generations.

While many of the traditional symbols and lore at the heart of egg art and Easter have been obscured with time and replaced by more commercialized imitations, the craftsmanship so central to its creation has also become increasingly scarce. Fewer artisans, professional or amateur, have invested the time to learn and master the crafts of painting and etching eggs passed down by local virtuosi, now predominantly elderly and too often themselves limited by age. This is no less true of European Easter egg art, than it is of African ostrich egg etching, Middle Eastern and Central European egg beading, or Asian styles of egg lacquering, painting, and sculpture.

Our global view of nature, the seasons, our holy days, and holidays have undergone a sea change, replaced by a new set of personal and societal priorities and concerns. In the process, existence of egg art and the history and meaning behind its varied forms seem, much like the egg itself-resilient, beautiful, strong, yet uniquely fragile. Culinary art has, in many ways, gone through a similar transformation and come out better for it. Like the phoenix, so often associated with it, perhaps the art of egg crafting too will rise from it own ashes and be reborn a wonderful and welcome centerpiece to life's daily and seasonal celebrations. Continue to learn more about egg art, please visit Global Gourmet.