ROMANIA
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PAINTING EASTER EGGS
BY MARIA
Every year, Romanian people have lots of things to prepare for Easter. One of the most important things is painting the Easter Eggs.
The egg is something that represents life and became a symbol of regeneration, purification and of eternity. In Romania, eggs are believed to have miraculous powers such as curing diseases or protecting animals in people’s households. In the morning of the first day of Easter, children go and wash their faces with the water where is placed a red egg and a silver coin, so that the children will be healthy, clean and rich just like the silver coin.
The ornamentation of decorative Easter eggs is very important. Every line has its own significance: the vertical straight line means life, the horizontal straight line is death, the double straight line: eternity, the line with triangles: knowledge, the wavy line: purification, the spiral: time, eternity and the double spiral: the connection between life and death.
In the past, the colors used for painting eggs were obtained from plants, boiling their leaves, flowers, barks or strain: red from
the bark, leaves and flowers of red apples, from
oregano flowers, or eglantine flowers; blue from
violets; green from walnut leaves, alder bark,
sunflower; black (the black eggs signify the pain
of Jesus) from the green bark of the walnut or
from alder bark.
This tradition has an incredible story. They are usually painted red as this color represents the blood shed by our Savior Jesus Christ when He was crucified and gave His life for our salvation, being the defining element of Easter.