2725) The tradition of Easter Eggs, Slovenia: Pošta Slovenije (Slovenian Post) has issued a set of three postage stamps of "A", "B" and "C" tariffs depicting Easter Eggs: Date of Stamp set issue: 10.03.2023:
About Easter:
Easter and Christmas are the two biggest Christian holidays.
The celebration of Easter is "set" at the time when the early season ends and the real, green spring begins.
The content of the holiday naturally has much older roots, represented by many beliefs from pre-Christian and Jewish traditions connected to the spirits of fertility and growth.
They are supposed to ensure a good harvest for people, health for families and livestock, and everything else that is necessary for life.
Christianity took many of these contents into the Bible and adapted them to their own views and calendar.
The date of Easter holidays changes, it depends on the moon. The peak of the Easter celebration is every year on the first Sunday after the first spring full moon, i.e., between March 22 and April 25.
Many festive events are included in the Easter round, which begins after Shrove Tuesday, on Ash Wednesday, and ends on Easter Sunday.
In addition to the Easter cycle, the Easter season, begins on Easter and lasts fifty or fifty-one days until Pentecost, which is the feast of St. Spirit.
The richness of the festive heritage and modernity is reflected in many local and regional differences in the Easter holidays and their contents.
This is already evident in the naming of the holiday, which, in addition to its official name, is called by older forms, such as, for example, "vuzem" (Bela krajina), "vazem" (Istria), "vezom" (Kostelsko), vüzen, vüzem (Prekmurje, eastern Styria) etc.
Easter dishes, which are carried in baskets and baskets for blessing, covered with hand-embroidered napkins and typical Easter symbols, such as, for example, have an important role and spiritual meaning.
Eggs painted and decorated in various ways are among the blessed dishes:
"Easter eggs", (also called "Paschal eggs"), are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the "Resurrection of Jesus".
As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of "Eastertide" (Easter season). The oldest tradition, which continues to be used in Central and Eastern Europe, is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs.
Although eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility and rebirth, in Christianity, for the celebration of "Eastertide", Easter eggs symbolise the empty tomb of Jesus, from which Jesus was resurrected.
In addition, one ancient tradition was the staining of Easter eggs with the colour red "in memory of the blood of Christ, shed as at that time of his crucifixion."
This custom of the Easter egg, according to many sources, can be traced to early Christians of Mesopotamia, and from there it spread into Eastern Europe and Siberia through the Orthodox Churches, and later into Europe through the Catholic and Protestant Churches.
Eggs in Christianity carry a Trinitarian symbolism as shell, yolk, and albumen are three parts of one egg.
Although one of the Christian traditions is to use dyed or painted chicken eggs, a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with candy such as jellybeans.
These eggs can be hidden for children to find on Easter morning, which may be left by the Easter Bunny. They may also be put in a basket filled with real or artificial straw to resemble a bird's nest.
The dyeing of Easter eggs in different colours is commonplace, with colour being achieved through boiling the egg in natural substances (such as, onion peel (brown colour), oak or alder bark or walnut nutshell (black), beet juice (pink) etc.), or using artificial colourings.
A greater variety of colour was often provided by tying on the onion skin with different coloured woollen yarn.
In the North of England these are called "pace-eggs" or "paste-eggs", (from a dialectal form of Middle English "pasche"), which were to be coloured or gilded and given to members of the royal household.
Traditionally in England, eggs were wrapped in onion skins and boiled to make their shells look like mottled gold, or wrapped in flowers and leaves first in order to leave a pattern, which parallels a custom practised in traditional Scandinavian culture.
Eggs could also be drawn on with a wax candle before staining, often with a person's name and date on the egg. Pace Eggs were generally eaten for breakfast on Easter Sunday breakfast.
Alternatively, they could be kept as decorations, used in "egg-jarping" ("egg tapping") games, or given to "Pace Eggers". In more recent centuries in England, eggs have been stained with coffee grains or simply boiled and painted in their shells.
Pysanky are Ukrainian Easter eggs, decorated using a wax-resist (batik) method. The word comes from the verb pysaty, "to write", as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax.
Use of Easter eggs in decorations:
In some Mediterranean countries, chicken eggs are boiled and decorated by dye and/or painting and used as decoration around the house.
This also happens in Lebanon, Georgia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. In Easter Sunday friends and family hit each other's egg with their own. The one whose egg does not break is believed to be in for good luck in the future.
In Germany, eggs decorate trees and bushes as "Easter egg trees", and in several areas' public wells as "Osterbrunnen".
Egg hunts:
An egg hunt is a game in which decorated eggs, which may be hard-boiled chicken eggs, chocolate eggs, or artificial eggs containing candies, are hidden for children to find.
The eggs often vary in size and may be hidden both indoors and outdoors. When the hunt is over, prizes are given for the largest number of eggs collected, or for the largest or the smallest egg.
In order to enable children to take part in egg hunts despite visual impairment, eggs have been created that emit various clicks, beeps, noises, or music so that visually impaired children can easily hunt for Easter eggs.
Egg rolling:
Egg rolling is also a traditional Easter egg game played with eggs at Easter. In the United Kingdom, Germany, and other countries children traditionally rolled eggs down hillsides at Easter.
This tradition was taken to the New World by European settlers and continues to this day each Easter with an Easter egg roll on the White House lawn.
Rutherford B. Hayes started the tradition of the Easter Egg Roll at the White House.
The tradition still occurs every year on the South Lawn of the White House. Now, there are many other games and activities that take place such as “Egg Picking” and “Egg Ball”.
Egg tapping:
In the North of England, during Eastertide, a traditional game is played where hard-boiled pace eggs are distributed and each player hits the other player's egg with their own. This is known as "egg tapping", "egg dumping", or "egg jarping". The winner is the holder of the last intact egg.
It is also practiced in Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Lebanon, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia (where it is called turčanje or trkanje), Ukraine, Russia, and other countries.
In parts of Austria, Bavaria and German-speaking Switzerland it is called "Ostereiertitschen or Eierpecken". In parts of Europe it is also called "epper", (from the German name Opfer, meaning "offering") and in Greece it is known as "tsougrisma".
Egg dance:
Egg dance is a traditional Easter game in which eggs are laid on the ground or floor and the goal is to dance among them without damaging any eggs, which originated in Germany.
The Stamp set:
A Stamp on cloth with the denomination "C" depicting the "Lamb of God" symbolically carrying a cross.
Technical details:
Issue Date: 10.03.2023
Designer: Maja Tomažič
Illustrator: Maja Tomažič
Printer: Agency for Commercial Activity d.o.o., Zagreb, Croatia
Process: Offset
Colours: 4 Colours (CMYK)
Links to Posts on Slovenia on this Blog:
Rajan Trikha has commented:
ReplyDelete"Interesting post👍"
Thank you so much Trikha sahab.
DeleteSantosh Khanna has commented:
ReplyDelete"Very interesting and informative post. Thanks for sharing."
Thank you so much Khanna sahab.
DeleteRsanker Sharma has commented:
ReplyDelete"Great post."
Thank you so much Sharma sahab.
DeleteRaj Kumar Srivastava has commented:
ReplyDelete"Informative."
Thank you, Raj.
Delete