Romanian Traditions of Painted Easter Eggs The art craft of pained Easter eggs is a very old tradition. The method of painting eggs starts in the pre-Christian period, as a form of celebrating life.

i Easter is the most important event in the Orthodox Christian calendar. Traditionally, celebrations in Romania begin on the Saturday evening. Dressed in all their finest clothes and holding candles, people gather round the churches. At the Easter Resurrection Mass just before midnight, the priest comes out to give a blessing, distribute holy bread and provide the flame from which everyone will light their candles. Suddenly the darkness is lit up and thousands of candles take to the streets.

The Method of Painted Eggs One of the most beautiful Romanian Easter traditions is painted eggs. The shells of hard-boiled eggs are dyed in colourful patterns, with a rich red the prevailing colour. They are often decorated with folk motifs. Designs are made with an implement called a condei or chisita - a small cartridge filled with paint with a sharp point on the end.

In Bucovina, more than anywhere else, painting eggs is raised to the art level. The folkloric motifs used can be found in all the Romanian symbolism: the sun, the leaf and as a reconfirmation of our christianity, the cross. The egg decoration does not end on painting, there are many techniques used and some of them are kept secret. Although nowadays there are a lot of new chemical paints, some prefer to do it in the traditional way, like using onion peels to get orange or red colors. Real leaves are sometimes applied to the egg’s surface and after the painting they are removed, leaving a natural shape on the egg.

Materials Needed: Hard boiled eggs Pencil for lightly drawing the design on the eggs called chisita Bee Wax Coloured paint (red, yellow, black) Soft cloth for wiping the eggs Basket with Easter grass

The egg painting technique In most places chicken eggs are painted. Any egg, that is about to be painted, is being boiled in yellow paint, then in red, black paint and so on. Take the chisita (the special tool like a pen) in one hand and in the other hand you hold the egg. Put the chisita in melted wax then start painting the egg with wax .Then you put the egg in red paint and when you pull it out, the egg is  already red, except the drawing made with wax which is yellow . If the egg must be separated by a white line between its two areas, the line is also drawn with wax, before it's being put in the red paint. After the egg sits in the red paint for 15 minutes, it's being pulled out and it's being dried. Now, you write with chisita again, filling the red spots with wax in order to remain red. The egg is being put in black wax, until the places that are not written with wax are being filled. After several minutes, the rest of the wax is being erased. Now the egg is being rubbed with butter and cleaned with a piece of woolen material . The egg would have three colours. The many the colours, the harder it is to paint them.