Why the Virgin Mary painted eggs and what different colors mean: Secrets of the 7 main Easter traditions

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The holiday of Bright Easter is perhaps the most important holiday for Christians. After all, it is the miraculous Resurrection of Jesus Christ that is considered the center of all episodes of biblical history. All Orthodox Christians are looking forward to this holiday with impatience and trepidation, preparing for it carefully and in advance. In our time, the traditions of the holiday have changed a bit. But the main attributes of the celebration, colored eggs and Easter cake, remain unchanged. Where did this tradition come from? What do they represent?

Easter history

Easter is a holiday dedicated to the Resurrection of Jesus. It takes more than a month to prepare for it. This holiday is preceded by Great Lent, which lasts forty days. Easter is the main church holiday of the year, it is always accompanied by joy, prayers, the alluring smell of fresh cakes and the ringing of bells.

The very name of the holiday comes from the Hebrew word "Passover", which means "exodus" or "deliverance" from death with the help of a bloody sacrifice. The Jewish people began to celebrate this holiday long before the birth of Christ. Among the Jews, it meant their deliverance from the Egyptian captivity, which was interpreted as the liberation of all people from the domination of sin and death. But the Orthodox holiday began to be celebrated a little later, after the Resurrection of the Son of God, who sacrificed himself to save all mankind. Coincidentally, the Resurrection took place on the day of Passover. But it may not have been a coincidence.

People always followed Jesus because he was kind and merciful. He loved them, understood them, forgave them, healed them. He was slandered and executed after an unjust trial. They tried to destroy all Christian faith by crucifying Jesus. By the way, the name of the seventh day of the week, Sunday, comes from the Easter holiday. Throughout the year, every Sunday is called "Little Easter", and believers on this day go to church for services and read prayers. On this day, it is undesirable to work at home, you need to devote time to God and family.

Bright Easter has its own traditions. The main attributes of this holiday are colored eggs and tasty cakes, symbolizing the shed blood on the cross, the Holy Sepulcher, as well as the shroud in which it was wrapped after death. Easter is a good, bright and joyful holiday, because the Resurrection of the Lord happened in a miraculous way.

It is necessary to bake cakes, paint eggs and make other preparations for Easter on Maundy Thursday, and they need to be consecrated on Holy Saturday during Holy Week. You cannot eat Easter food until Sunday, even for those who do not fast.

Why do Orthodox and Catholics celebrate Easter on different days

This ancient holiday has no fixed date. The day of the celebration is calculated according to the lunisolar calendar, on which the dates of many religious holidays and fasts depend. The beginning of the Easter celebration is tied to the spring full moon, which is observed after the vernal equinox.

This year, Orthodox Easter Sunday falls on May 2 and Catholic Easter Sunday falls on April 4. In general, Easter can be on any Sunday between April 4 and May 8, according to the new style. So this year Orthodox Easter is late. Disputes about the date of Easter Sunday have not subsided for centuries, so Catholics and Orthodox Christians celebrate it on different dates. Although it happens that the day can coincide. The closest such case will be in 2025.

Where did the tradition of painting eggs for Easter come from?

Nowadays, many people paint eggs for Easter, and do not think why to do this. But in Orthodoxy, this custom was a sacred sacrament, which was observed by absolutely all believers. At the moment, there are several hypotheses for the emergence of this tradition, but none of them has been documented.

According to one version, this custom originated from Mary Magdalene, who first went to inform the emperor Tiberius of the good news that Jesus Christ was resurrected. She could not come to him empty-handed, and there was no money for a gift, so she took an egg with her as a gift, which symbolizes life and the stages of its development. Naturally, the emperor did not believe in such a miracle that someone could be resurrected, he laughed and said that this white chicken egg would rather turn red than it would turn out to be true. But, to his surprise, the color of the egg changed color immediately. The red color symbolized the blood that Jesus shed.

According to the second version, this custom appeared because of the Virgin Mary. She is said to have started painting eggs to entertain baby Jesus. The third version belongs to scientists who believe that it was invented for practicality. Since during Lent it was not allowed to eat eggs, they were boiled so that they did not have time to deteriorate. And, in order to easily distinguish boiled from raw later, they were painted in different colors.

In Christian customs, the Easter egg symbolizes the Holy Sepulcher, which hides eternal life in itself. Two thousand years ago, in Palestine, tombs were made in caves, cutting a tunnel, blocking the entrance with a stone. According to legend, the stone resembled the shape of an egg. For Christians, the Easter egg is a symbol of the Resurrection of Jesus, because a new life is always hidden under the shell of an egg.

Previously, eggs were dyed mostly red, but over time, other colors were added. And nowadays, Easter eggs have become a separate art form. Now, in addition to different colors, they are painted with matte, pearlescent, marble, cracking paints. They also draw various ornaments, patterns and even paintings. Decorate with beads, stickers and other decorative materials.

Choose the colors of Easter eggs deliberately. Here's what the main colors of Easter eggs represent:

Red - the most popular color, meaning the shed blood of Jesus on the cross, as well as eternal life; blue - a symbol of a peaceful sky and angelic abode; yellow - the color of the sun and comfortable life; green - a shade symbolizing health, harmony and spring awakening of nature; Orange - symbolizes fun and joy; Brown - means the well-being and fertility of the land.

The tradition of dyeing eggs is followed by both Christians and Catholics. The only difference is that Catholics like to use more different colors, painting them with patterns. They also have traditional Easter treats in the form of chocolate eggs.

How Easter cakes became one of the main attributes of the holiday

With the time of the adoption of Christianity, the bread that was used for Easter ceremonies began to be called kulich. In Russian traditions, Easter cake is a tall bread made of yeast dough in the shape of a cylinder, which is baked in the name of the resurrection of Jesus. Raisins, dried apricots, candied fruits and so on are added to the cake dough, decorating with white glaze and various powders. Eggs, Easter cake and other products are necessarily consecrated in the church on Bright Saturday.

There is a reason why cake dough is made from sweet butter dough. Since Jesus Christ, before making the great sacrifice, ate exclusively unleavened bread. But, after a miraculous resurrection, he could afford an unusually tasty, soft, rich and aromatic bread. Therefore, the cake was chosen as a symbol of the holiday in honor of this joyful and bright event.

Initially, in Russia, Easter cakes were baked only twice a year. In the spring, sowing was celebrated in this way, and in the fall - the end of the harvest. During the time of Peter I, a third reason also appeared - the celebration of the New Year. So Easter cake was an attribute of festive feasts. On ordinary days, people could not pamper themselves with this delicious bread, since the products were expensive for it, and the baking process itself, let's say, is not the easiest one. But after the adoption of Christianity, Easter cake was baked only on Easter holidays. Now this sweet bread is associated with the terrible death and miraculous resurrection of Jesus.

It is interesting that many of the customs performed by the Orthodox on Easter are very similar to Muslim traditions - in one of our previous reviews, a story about when muslims paint eggs.