#easter tradition

in preparation for Easter, we have a tradition to paint eggshells

Huh! I didn’t know about it! I found an article here (Link). It is in Greek but Google Translate sometimes works well in this language - and there is a nice vintage pic on the bottom! For those who are not aware, “hascho” (χάσκω) is a verb meaning “I open wide” (usually the mouth but it can also be used for the environment) so we, as classic Greeks, made it into a weird (probably plural) noun, “Hascha” 😁 And it rhymes!

I find it cringy but wholesome and I will definitely run around with an egg hanging from a stick this Pascha!

Happy Easter! This copy of a wall painting by Nina De Garis Davies depicts a servant with a tray of ostrich eggs covered by two ostrich feathers. The original work was found in the private tomb of Horemheb at Thebes.

Ostrich eggs were widely used for a number of different purposes in Ancient Egypt. They were often painted and decorated, and imitation ostrich eggs were made out of alabaster and stone. It is likely that they were also used as a food source and a medical ingredient during the New Kingdom. Ostrich eggs could also be made into beads, perforated discs and pendants to be put on a chain and worn around the neck - some great Easter egg decorating inspiration!

Copy of wall painting, private tomb 78 of Horemheb, Thebes, servant with ibex, hare and ostrich eggs by Nina de Garis Davies, 20th century. Paint.

We talked about how Christmas abroad is a strange, capitalist hellscape, comparing it to Orthodox Christmas, but when we got to talking about Easter, I think we may have accidentally broken the man.

You see, what we do on Easter is... well, egg fights. At least, that's we called them. The guy then thought that we throw eggs at each other like barbarians, when in actuality, what happens is that each person takes a decorated, boiled egg, and then tries to smash everyone else's egg. The person with the un-cracked egg wins at the end of the day (and gets constipated for cca a week, since it's tradition to eat every egg you cracked). Then, rather disgustingly, the winning egg is kept in the house for the whole year, as a sort of fortune-attracting charm, or something.