by Delaynna Trim, Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art Curator of Collections
Easter is April 9 this year. It moves around the calendar every year because Easter is based on a lunisolar calendar and falls on the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon. That full moon occurs on or the next full moon after March 21, so Easter can be anywhere between March 22 and April 25. In the Christian tradition, Easter celebrates Christ rising from the dead. Even if you don’t celebrate the religious holiday, many people celebrate Easter with egg hunts and family dinners.
How did bunnies and chicks get associated with Easter? With Easter being in spring, it is easy to look around farms and see that this is the time of year for baby animals. Some say the bunny came from the pagan festival for Eostre, a goddess of fertility whose symbol was a rabbit.
Do you decorate eggs for Easter? Did you know that the earliest decorated eggs have been found in South Africa and date back 60,000 years? Easter eggs date back to the 13th century. Many vegetables and other natural objects have been used to dye eggs. Red onions dye eggs red or lavender. Beets turn the eggs pink. Tumeric can be used for yellow. Cabbage can dye eggs blue. Mint or other leaves can be used for green dye.
Intricately decorated Easter eggs can be found in Eastern Europe in countries such as Poland and the Ukraine. In Polish, Easter eggs are called pisanki, which means “to write.” Wax is carefully applied using one of two tools: either a tiny funnel stylus, or kistka, is used to make fine lines, or a stylus with a rounded end is used to drip the wax onto the egg, creating elongated teardrops. The egg is dyed and more wax is applied to create layers of color from light to dark. At each stage, the most recently dyed color is preserved by covering it with wax. After you are done, the remaining wax is heated and removed. Around the town of Łowicz, in Central Poland, it is customary to glue cut-outs made from colored paper onto the eggs.
The MGMoA has a collection of Russian lacquer boxes including one egg. The boxes and other shapes are made using a papier mâché process that is then lacquered. Miniature painting on papier mâché started in Russia in the late 18th century in the village of Danilkovo, not far from Moscow. To create the papier mâché boxes, thin sheets of cardboard are sliced, glued and pressed together. While the glue is still wet, they are wrapped around various forms including rectangular, square, round or cylindrical.
Eggs have long represented new life and are readily available in most parts of the world. Chicken eggs are most popular here in the US, but ostrich, duck, or other bird eggs can also be decorated. Usually the eggs are either hard boiled or blown out (poking a small hole in the egg to pour the liquid out) before decorating.
Art Project: Design an Easter Egg
Using crayons or markers design your egg. You can use one or many different colors. Is your design using geometric shapes like squares and triangles? Is it using designs like flowers?
For more ideas on decorating Easter eggs visit www.mgmoa.org/art-projects/
