The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-03-25
Moravian Easter
Eggs Have Real
Artistic Worth
Most Intricate Designs
Are Painted With
Patience and
Skill.

IT would SEEM On first thought,
that Easter eggs are purely small
how or girl interest. Yet groups OF
grown-ups that gather around cases
of Moravian Easter eggs exhibited
each spring in the children's museum
of the Cleveland Museum of Art at
test the fact that the most childlike
thing, If it be well done. does not lose
its attraction. Some of the visitors
are interested in the gay colors, and
the beautifully intricate designs; some
are especially curious about the proc
ess of decoration; others question re-
garding the origin of this particular
application of folk craft, and the Gus
toms and legends surrounding 1t.
In each Moravian, Polish and Bo-
hemian village, In fact throughout all
of eastern Europe, there is an old
woman who colors the eggs for a
number of families. In Rumania, more
generally, each housewife still prides
herself on the preparation of eggs for
her own household The designs on
the eggs in the children's museum
collection are very ancient. Their
origin is found in leaf petals, flower
outlines, bird feathers, the coil of the
small shell, all long since conventions
allied into stars, scrolls and other
figures. There are also innumerable
geometric patterns. The colors are
simple and bright, made in the be-
ginning from dyes prepared by the
peasants themselves from herbs, gall
and vegetable sources. Blue, yellow
and red are the principal hues, though
black is used with distinctive effect.
The Color Process.
The method of putting the color on
to the egg is quite complicated. 1t
is somewhat like the process of batik.
The old peasant woman first of all,
washes the eggs in sour milk and
warns them by the fire where she
has put some wax to melt. Using an
instrument like a wooden pencil with
a tiny metal tube at the end, ~
she picks up the melted wax and care
fully draws lines or rows of points on
the egg, varying the design on each.
If the eggs are merely to be dyed
red, they are left some time In the
dye, and then put In boiling water,
which takes off the wax, and leaves
the white background of the egg shell
in its place, so that we now have a
red egg with a white pattern. If
another color is to be used, the wax
is left on after the egg comes out
of the first dye and additional wax
Is put on over the red, to hold what
ever pattern is to appear In red; then
the egg is laid in the new dye, black
for instance. When the black has
thoroughly overlaid the egg, boiling
water takes off all the wax and we
have a black egg with a red and white
pattern" BY ypostponing the use of
the boiling water and drawing more
patterns in wax, the number Of colors
may be increased.
An Easter Legend.
There is a quaint and curiously
touching legend in these eastern coun-
tries that explains the decoration of
eggs at Easter It has the same
simple directness as the patterns on
the egg themselves.
The story is told that while Jesus
was being tortured on the cross, Mary
went through the crowd Of prosecutors
trying to bride them with basket
of eggs. Being unsuccessful, in her
despair, she placed the eggs at the
foot Of the cross where they were
stained with blood from the wounds
Of Jesus. When he saw this, accord
ing to the old story, he said to his
apostles who we're standing near