Hungarian-American Memories of Easter

I recall Easter memories of spending countless hours making gifts of love and folk art in my proud Hungarian tradition. Though these traditions predate Christianity they seemed to flow naturally once Christianity arrived and spread throughout Eastern Europe. Eggs are the symbol of life. So it was a very practical transition that Easter eggs would become strongly associated with this Christian holiday that occurred at the same time of year that Pagans would celebrate new life and rebirth as that region of the world would be experiencing the same both in flora and fauna.

As a small child my memories of decorating Easter eggs were no different than those of our American friends. We would first hard-boil, then drop the eggs into containers that had a mixture of vinegar, water and food dye. But as I got older I learned how to prepare and decorate Easter eggs in the ancient ways that were originated and practiced throughout most of Eastern Europe.

Once I reached my early teens I would literally spend weeks preparing for Easter by making "himestojάs" (traditional decorated Hungarian Easter eggs.) Each egg would take many pain-staking hours to prepare and decorate. Though creating this folk art brought me tremendous pleasure it was simultaneously vexing as the egg could shatter and break at any time during the process or anytime thereafter as the final product would be very delicate.

We would first prick the eggs with pins making tiny holes at the top and bottom. Then the fun part: blowing the insides out of the egg without shattering the shell. Sound easy enough? Just try it and see. It would take tremendous amounts of air pressure combined with just enough delicate pressure to hold the egg but not break the shell. In my opinion, this was the least enjoyable part of the process. But it was necessary nonetheless.

Next would be the actual process of creating folk art; decorating the now-hollow egg shells. Again if one wasn't extremely careful all that hard work would end up in the trash. There are two different ways to decorate the eggs with which I am familiar.

1. Applying hot wax onto a lightly colored or white egg with special instruments, wax and dye made just for this purpose. Sometimes dying the egg with increasingly darker colors during each step. Finally removing the wax which would expose the designs created by the layering process. This particular method brings back Easter memories associated with singed eyebrows and burned fingertips.

2. Painting the eggs with paint. (I confess there were some times when I "cheated" and used thin magic markers to apply the designs. Admittedly, this was my preferred method of making the "Himestojάsok."

If the pin holes we made at the top and bottom of the egg were judged to be unsightly, we'd fill the egg with fine sand and seal the top and bottom with wax and try to paint over the wax to camouflage the "plug". Otherwise we'd just protect the finished egg with a protective clear coat of varnish or nail polish depending on what type of medium we used to decorate the egg.

These Easter memories take me back to a time when my life was much simpler so they are pleasant indeed!