My Lithuanian girlfriend Dalia showed me a great, fun and easy way to decorate eggs. Easter is a major event in Lithuania, and egg decorating is a big part of it.
You can find a very interesting history of Lithuanian Easter traditions here.
The eggs in the photo above were made by boiling onion in water. Then, raw eggs are wrapped in string, with herbs, grass, spices, seran wrap, tin foil or other objects underneath. The eggs are then hardboiled in the onion water, taken out, and the items held by string are removed. Hard boiled, and beautiful.
The same process can be done with anything that creates any coloured water – instead of onion. Food colouring, tea, blueberries and beets are great options. You could also use water soluble paint in water, for very vibrant colours – I wouldn’t eat them after though!
To create designs, use anything that holds interesting patterns onto the egg, and lets the colour in, in portions. A nylon sock works well.
The picture above, is the final product of the fun that Dalia, Karolis, and I had. With these hard boiled masterpieces, there are several fun traditional Lithuanian games to play.
Egg Breaking: Two players hold an egg in their hand, with just the tip exposed. They hit the tips of the eggs against each other until one of them breaks. First to break loses! The key is to test the strength of an egg gently on your teeth. If the sound is clear, the egg is strong. If the sound is muffled, the egg isn’t even worth colouring!
Egg Rolling: Similar to boccia, a small wooden ramp is used to propel an egg onto grass or carpet. Wounded eggs from the previous game are perfect to use here. Once an egg is in play, the next player tries to hit it with another egg, and wins the last player’s egg. Player with the most eggs wins!
Here are some other Lithuanian masterpieces that have been made by using wax to create designs, before dying – or by etching / scratching colour off, after the dying process.
We hope you have a happy and positive Easter – mostly though, have fun!
