my egg tree

[ewein2412]

 

The eggs are in their natural state!  Some of them are bluey-green and the little ones are quail eggs.  

Tim was very disparaging about my insistence that an egg tree is an American tradition of Germanic origin but then he found this
in The Scotsman.  I appreciate that selling pre-made egg trees is a commercial venture but I beg to differ with the sanctimonious folk who remark  "I can't see this catching on" and "This has got  nothing to do with Easter.  It has nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ."

Well.... ACTUALLY, neither has the word EASTER got anything to do with the resurrection of Christ, and my kids are taught in school that we give each other chocolate eggs at Easter because they're SYMBOLIC OF THE STONE COVERING CHRIST'S TOMB.... UH HUH.  Not of fertility or rebirth, then.  Not of the Saxon spring goddess Eastre or whatever her name is, which is presumably where the word Easter comes from.  Not that I disagree with or object to the egg=stone symbolism, it's a neat piece of syncretism, but I never heard it before I came to the UK.  Not even from my minister grandfather or while getting my PhD in Folklore.

so.  Just let me celebrate Easter with my homemade American egg tree which will never catch on, and someone else can go buy the four thousand chocolate eggs full of Lego from Tesco's.

in other religious news, my rather holy but somewhat odd daughter decided we needed to re-enact The Last Supper on Maundy Thursday (we have, in fact, done this before).  It is a lovely, if strange and impromptu ceremony complete with biblical texts, and generated some funny quotations tonight:

"Mummy, I don't want any manna!  I don't like manna!" (Mark)

"Judas son of Simon Escargot" (Sara)

"Mummy, please get your Bible off my bread."

My egg tree is symbolic of three years' worth of bicycling out to the Gloagburn Farm Shop, bringing Mark home from school for a treat at lunch time, chatting with the postmistress up the road at the local post office where they also sell free range eggs, and a visit to a quail farm on our way to see the salmon leaping up the falls at Buchanty Spout.

Comments

[mhari.livejournal.com]

That is one fabulous egg tree!

...Why *was* your Bible on the bread?

[ewein2412]

that is a Mystery.

no actually it was an accident. We were using matzo for bread (Not For Passover Use matzo, I hasten to add), and it was lying on the table when I put down my bible.

[sovay]

"Mummy, please get your Bible off my bread."

You have wonderful children.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeeeeee. Ohhh, they're so lovely. Blown eggs are so lovely.

[ajl-r.livejournal.com]

The egg tree looks lovely, what a nice tradition to have. I've not seen one before.

When we were children, my mother used to painstakingly wrap a few eggs in onion skins to boil, or put a little food colouring in the water, so they came out a pretty colour all over, and then draw pictures on them with coloured wax crayons while still hot. They were so pretty that we always felt it was a shame to eat them!

[estara.livejournal.com]

We still do that in Germany, but mostly the kids do it together with their parents. You can buy prepainted eggs at the supermarket or the bakery if you don't want to go to the trouble yourself.

[ewein2412]

everyone I ever knew growing up colors boiled eggs (in dye made of food coloring) and then hides them for Easter morning. We do it here, but it's hard to find eggs light enough to color.

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

That's what we always did, too. One of my good friends in high school did Ukranian style eggs with her father every year, which is how I learned that if you let raw eggs sit out long enough in a well ventilated area, they dry out.

[ewein2412]

I mean, we do it in my house. No one else in Perth does it.

[ewein2412]

see my comments to estara below... we will be doing the dye and crayon thing this evening, probably!

[ewein2412]

I mean, see my comments above... whatever.

[ajl-r.livejournal.com]

I got the sense of it. :) Happy colouring.

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

I like your egg tree. I've always liked eggs that aren't the traditional white. (My local Whole Foods sells a range of eggs from quail to ostrich, and it reminds me of that section.)

It's Eostre, I'm pretty sure. It's definately what Wednesday called her in American Gods

[ewein2412]

neil gaiman, authority on everything? hmmm.

just kidding. I don't think there's an official spelling of it, but I'm sure one is more canonical than the others.

you can't get white hens' eggs anywhere in the UK! The white ones on my tree are duck eggs, I think.

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

What, really, no white eggs? Even people I know who have chickens wandering around their yard get some white eggs. I always liked the blue-ish green ones.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Oooh, lovely, but we only use painted eggs *nods* in Germany. Sometimes we buy very intricate ones, even wooden ones (those are mostly smaller, like your quail eggs), sometimes we paint them with the kids (after getting rid of the insides of course). What branch did you use? My mother likes using forsythia for the yellow flowers.

Another thing: since the Christmas tree caught on, why shouldn't the easter bouquet (which would be the direct translation)?

[ewein2412]

I think the branch is azalea or linden. Unfortunately it's a DEAD branch, which isn't very appropriate, but our forsythia isn't big enough to cut! I went for strength of purpose rather than beauty.

I was thinking about the tree thing. Christmas trees (evergreen in midwinter), easter trees (blossoming in spring), the Swedish maypole (covered in greens for midsummer)--definitely a connection with fertility, growth, rebirth, everlasting life, etc.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Right ^^. I think we can use every reminder of Mother Nature and the circle of life in the technified countries these days.

And Easter bouquets weren't invented by the Nazis, so no one has to feel worried about taking another custom from Germany. I bet it was even older than Prince Albert's Christmas tree :P.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Another thing: did you now that the Yule log is also supposed to be a former German custom? At least according to Tales from the Green Valley, which I hope you've seen. It's excellent for this history teacher (even if I can't show it to my students, their English isn't good enough for all those technicalities and medieval words).

http://www.petersommer.com/about-peter-sommer-travels/tales-from-the-green-valley/

[ewein2412]

seems like any connection with Easter and flowers is a natural one!

Whew

[katranides.livejournal.com]

What a relief! I was quite dismayed to see an Easter tree in the Kleingarten because I figured American commercialism was contaminating yet another German holiday. I am thrilled to learn that those plastic eggs are the traditional way that the spring is ushered in here in Deutschland.

[deliasherman.livejournal.com]

This is truly lovely--especially what your egg tree symbolizes for you. That's the center of these traditions, I think--the personal memories they build around themselves.

Mark's comment about the manna is priceless--and given what I was told manna actually was, I can't blame him for not wanting any. Something to do with plant lice or aphids, I think.

[ewein2412]

I asked him what he thought manna was like and he described it as "crumbled up bits of the inside of bread, without the crust. I don't like bread without the crust."

they have been learning about moses in school. They know a ton more about god than I do.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

So, um, you don't know me, but I think I've fangirled at you before. Would you mind if I read your LJ?

[ewein2412]

by all means, the more the merrier! I've been trying to figure out where I know your lj user name from. I think I recognize it from rainbowjehan or mhari or one of their connections. Welcome!

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

Probably both!