Wednesday, April 8, 2009





Easter is just a few days away, so I thought I’d chat about one of my favorite topics, Eggs.

Since I was very young I’ve been fascinated by eggs. I can recall at the age of three or four finding a bird’s nest that was blown from a tree during a storm. The nest held two pale blue robin’s eggs.  

They were so beautiful that I wanted to keep them, but my grandmother explained to me that they were somebody’s babies and that Momma Bird was probably sad and worried that they were missing. I climbed up in the tree and grandma handed me the nest to put back safely on a secure branch. Right around Easter time, I heard the high pitched cheeping of newborn baby birds. I thought of them as my babies too. Since then, Easter time has always been my favorite holiday and I started collecting eggs.

Over the years, I have learned a lot about eggs. Nearly every ancient civilization venerated the egg as the birthplace of both gods and men. Whether they called it the Cosmic Egg, the World Egg, or the Womb of the Great Mother, the egg shape represented creation in both Eastern and Western belief systems. To the Egyptians, the golden egg represented the sun, laid each morning by the goddess Hathor (in Western cultures she became the goose).  In the Old Ways, eggs represented rebirth and renewal. 

Ostera, the celebration of the Spring Equinox was an important holiday in the Celtic tradition. The festival not only celebrated the returning light of the sun, but also honored the egg goddess Eostre (after whom the Christians named their spring holy day). Strange though it may seem, it was during the ancient Ostera festivals that bunnies (which I also collect) became attached to eggs. The myth goes that the March Hare wanted to impress Eostre, so he painted a beautiful egg and presented it to her at her festival. The goddess was so pleased with the gift that she wanted all the children to have one also. She put the March Hare in charge of creating the beautiful gift eggs and thus the Eostre Bunny was born.

Decorating eggs can be as simple as dipping warm eggs in natural dies such as beet juice, blueberry juice, or saffron water to create a range of pastel colors. On the other end of the spectrum are the beautiful jewel encrusted Faberge style eggs. I have all kinds of eggs. Crystal. Wood. Paper. Metal. Glass. Ceramic. Plastic, Stone. All kinds. I even have a dinosaur egg that I found on an archeological dig I did one summer. I try to find at least one new egg every year.  Some years they are plentiful and I have to stop myself from buying them all. Other years, like this one, the one that belongs in my collection doesn’t show up until the very last minute. I’m still looking for this year’s prize. But here are a few more from of my current collection.







I love spring because of the sense of renewal I feel when plants start to bloom and birds start nest-building to lay their eggs. Leave a post about what this wonderful season means to you? I would love to hear some of your favorite springtime memories whether they are related to flowers, bunnies, or eggs. Leave a post about spring and I will enter you to win an egg just like the one I add to my collection this year. I’ll pick a winner next Wednesday, April 15th. Someone will have good news on tax day!

Hanna

8 comments:

  1. I love the eggs also. I have a small collection. I did not pursue the hobby and it got away from me. I have two alabaster eggs, that are real nice. When I was younger I worked at a jewelry store, and when they came in for sale I bought two of them. I also have several oriental painted eggs. I do not know what they are made of. I have a collection of small oriental eggs that is neat. The ones you have pictured here on your blog are very beautiful!!

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  2. Wow I love spring too. The flowers are blooming and everything is finally turning green again. Love the fact that soon I'll get to plant my garden. I guess spring means rebirth to me. Everything seems to come alive again including me. LOL

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  3. Wow - what a collection of beautiful artful eggs. I just loved your post and all it made me feel. That childhood story was just heartwarming.

    Tammie King
    www.NightOwlRomance.com

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  4. awesome collection of eggs. I love how your grandma told you that the eggs were belonged to a mommy.

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  5. When I was a little girl, my mother made Easter very special with her hand-decorated eggs. She "blew" the egg to remove its contents, and that fascinated me most because it seemed so impossible to get all the insides out through that tine hole. Then using India ink, she carefully drew on faces of clowns or rabbits. She gave the clowns colored crepe paper hats and the rabbits long paper ears on which she drew faint pink veins. Then the eggs were set in a crepe paper "skirt", a length of crepe paper about 3 inches wide that she gathered on one side and glued together. It formed a perfect supporting cradle for the egg. She made dozens of these, enough that each of her five children could take them to school and have one for each child in the class.

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  6. My grandmother had us blow eggs once when we were kids. I thought I was going to pass out :) She still has the thin, faded shells in her china hutch and I have wonderful memories too. Thanks for sharing pix of your pretty collection, Hanna.

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  7. I am so excited to find someone else that loves eggs too. I have a small collection of about 30 eggs and I love to add a new one.As a child I used to blow eggs clean and color them with food coloring.My mother kept some of those till the day she died. I mis that kind of thing sometimes. Hope you had a great Easter.
    Debby

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  8. You certainly put up some lovely pictures here. I once did a research project about Faberge' eggs and love it when one is featured in a story.
    My husband somehow found out about my research (from before I met him) and for our 15th anniversary bought me a beautiful Russian Egg pendant that is green and black cloisonné with small diamonds set in a pattern. Our daughters were so intrigued that for Christmas a couple of years ago he went out and found two different designs to give to them. We also have a small collection of wooden hand-painted eggs from local artists and my husband makes beautiful wooden stands for them on the lathe.
    I hope your Easter was lovely and bright.

    Laurel N.

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