| |
Easter Costume Party Idea: The man's role at
the Easter celebration
Eggs used
only for decorative purposes may have their contents
blown out and their shells turned into highly
ornamental works of art ("Longshanks" -- King Edward
I of England, 1239-1307 -- paid to have 450 eggs
decorated with gold leaf to give out to the members
of his household). Or the "eggs" may be wooden or
ceramic and used to adorn the Easter table. The
exquisite pysanky of Eastern Europe, made by
subsequent applications of wax and dipping in dyes,
are one of Easter's treasures, and the forty-nine
ceramic, bejewelled eggs created -- only one or two
each year at Eastertime -- for the Russian royal
family by master jeweller, Peter Carl Fabergé
(1846-1920), are museum pieces. This tradition can
be carried out when the father organizes and
participates in the egg decorating activities.
There is yet another
tradition that involves the man of the house. The
father passes out a decorated egg to each family member
after the Easter dinner. He turns to the person
next to him and they strike their eggs against each
other. When hitting the eggs together, the eggs can
only touch rounded end to rounded end; they can't
make contact from the side. The person whose egg
cracks, which symbolizes the breaking open of
Christ's tomb, yells the Easter greeting, "Surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia!" ("The Lord
is risen indeed!"). The person with the intact egg
responds, "Et apparuit Simoni, alleluia!" ("And hath
appeared unto Simon!") and then goes to the next
person and repeats the egg smashing.
And so it goes
around the table, with the survivor of each round
turning to the next person in line and trying to
crack his next opponent's egg. If your egg cracks,
you're out. The person who remains at the end with
the intact egg will be blessed for the year. A more
modern version of this game is to award a penny or
dollar, depending on the age of the child, for every
winning egg. At the end of the game the winner takes
his winnings and later spends it on the rest of the
family as a way of spreading the good. This could be
in the form of a movie, or a trip to the ice
cream shoppe!
|
 |
|
|
