Monday, January 28, 2013

How The Rabbit Brought The Easter Eggs

(Translated from the German)

      Once upon a time, many years ago, Spring had come back to the earth, and after a long, hard fight with sturdy, old Winter, had succeeded in driving him up into the mountains with his ice and snow.
      Then Spring walked through the bare woods, and under his feet little blades of green grass spring up, violets and anemones opened their dainty flowers, and out of the ground crept thousands of insects, rubbing their eyes after their long winter's sleep.
      Spring touched the trees, and at once the buds burst open and tender little leaves and blossoms peeped out of their warm winter covering. Soon large flocks of birds returned from the south, joyously greeted their old friends who had stayed at home and braved the cold winter. 
      Spring smiled as he looked around in his happy little world. Then he said to himself:
      "Everything is ready for the great reception, but where are the people? They do not seem to know that I have chased the cold Winter away. Probably they are still sitting around their stoves waiting for him to go. I must send word and invite them to come out."
      He called a little bird who was hopping near him with a bit of wood in his beak and said to him:
      "Birdie, I want you to be my messenger. Fly to the city and tell the people that we are waiting for them to go out into the wood and have a happy day with us."
      But the little bird said:
      "Dear Spring, I thank you very much for the honor, and should be only too happy to carry your message, but my little wife and I have just commenced to build my nest, and if I leave it now the wind will blow it all to pieces, for my wife is not strong enough to go building it alone."
      "Well, go and finish your nest," said Spring, kindly, and called another bird who had, he knew, finished his nest, and told him of the message he wanted him to carry.
      "Will you not excuse me, kind Spring?" asked the little bird. "We have seven beautiful eggs in our nest, and my wife is hatching them. If I go away she would starve to death, for she wouldn't leave eggs a minute to get something to eat."
      Spring spoke to two or three other birds, but he found it was the same with all of them. They were all busy with their own affairs, and he was too kind to send them away when they were so much needed in their homes. He looked around for another messenger when a rabbit ran across his path. 
      "Stop, little fellow," he cried. "Come here; I want you." He explained to him on what errand he wanted him to go. If you have ever seen a rabbit in the open field you know that he is the most timid fellow that ever was. At the least noise he starts off on a run and never stops until he reaches his home.
      He trembled all over when Spring spoke to him, and his voice shook as he said:
      "Oh, please, dear Spring, do not send me to the city. You know how many of my friends people kill every year with their terrible guns. I know some one will shoot me before I have even had time to deliver your message, and then what good will it do you?"
      "What a little coward you are!" laughed Spring. "But you need not talk to the big people at all; you can tell the dear little children. You are not afraid of them, are you?"
      "Oh, yes," sobbed the poor little rabbit. "They will throw stones at me and hurt me. I'm so afraid, please don't make me go!"
      "No, no, dear little Bunny; I cannot excuse you. But I won't let anybody hurt you. I have and idea! Come along with me and I will tell you."
      And they walked down to the brook, the rabbit trotting by his side, still trembling. He cut tender little twigs from the willow trees, wove a pretty little basket, and lined it with soft moss. Then he went back into the woods and looked into the all the bird's nests, and when he found one full of eggs he took one little egg out and laid it carefully in the basket.
      There were white eggs, there were brown ones, and there were eggs of sky blue. The robin gave one of her five blue eggs; the sparrow one of her brown speckled eggs; the woodpecker one of her white eggs, and the catbird a greenish blue one. Then Spring cut some pussy willow branches, placed them on top of the eggs, and tied the basket on the back of the rabbit, who had been looking on wonderingly.
      "Now, my little Bunny, we are ready to send our message. When night comes you run down to the city. Everybody will be asleep, so no one will see you. If you hurry, you can get back her before morning. You will not have to say a word; but on the doorstep of each house lay down one of these twigs of pussy willow and a little egg, and I'm sure all the people will understand what we wish to tell them."
      The rabbit nodded. He was not afraid to do that. He did as Spring told him.
      Next morning there was great joy in the city.
      "Papa, mamma, see what we have found." the happy children shouted. "The pussy willows are out; the birds have come back. Spring must be here. "Oh, let's go out to the woods."
      Everybody went, and such a happy time they had, gathering flowers and listening to the birds. This was Easter time. (The Washington Times, Sunday, April 23, 1905 - transcribed by Kathy Grimm)

Sunday, January 27, 2013

A Religious Easter Crossword

A religious Easter word search puzzle for Sunday school teachers.

Eggs Decorated With Antique Lace and Faux Pearls

Natalie cradles the lovely goose egg that won a $100.
 dollar gift certificate from Hearthsong when she was
only four years old.

Cardboard, covered lace eggs.
      When my oldest girl was very young, I crafted this lace covered goose egg to submit to a local drawing at a Hearthsong toy shop in our neighborhood. The grand prize for entering the Easter egg competition was a $100.00 dollar gift certificate. Each entry had to be submitted with a decorated egg for the store's egg tree that was displayed in their front window. I won the grand prize and my little girl received the most wonderful toys for her Easter basket and Christmas stocking that following year.
      The egg was very easy to make. I simply glued some antique lace to a very large goose egg and then added a strand of faux pearls to the top so that the egg could be hung. In time the store returned my submission and our family has displayed the egg at Easter every year since then.
       Younger egg makers may like to try crafting cardboard versions of the same layering techniques. Cardboard is easier to work with and young people can come up with some stunning results just as long as they take care when using a glue gun. The sample lacy egg shown here on cardboard was first covered with jute twine and hot glue in a spiral design. Afterwards the lace ribbon and beaded clippings from a formal, recycled gown where glued in layers on top. The results as you can see were satisfactory.

Eggs decorated with both real and fake candy

What to do with old decorator cake candies?

      I decorated this large Easter Egg with the candy sprinkles people normally use on holiday cookies. I worked on a styrofoam egg with white school glue. Because the colors in the candy sprinkles are made with food dyes, a slow drying glue or a cold room temperature may react with the delicate sprinkles to create a mushy mess. It is very important to use fast drying glue and to set the egg out to dry in front of a warm vent.
      I then sealed the surface of this Easter egg with Mod Podge in order to prevent the surface from crumbling. This egg will probably only last a few years at best, but I had fun working with different materials.
       The design reminds me of Van Gogh's "Starry Night." If I were to craft an egg similar to this one again, I would use seed beads instead and save the candy for an Easter desert.

Perfect looking chocolate eggs that will never melt.
Faux Chocolate Eggs
Perfect for The Egg Tree
 
       These flat cardboard eggs decorated with chocolate treats are in fact quite artificial! The chocolates look just like the real thing because these are made with real chocolate candy molds, however, the faux candy is molded with Sculpey oven-bake clay instead of butter, cream and cocoa.
       After unmolding the clay, bake it as directed on the package. Let it cool and then paint a thick coating of chocolate brown acrylic paint on the top half only. Glue the flat side of the faux candy to paper covered cardboard eggs and wait for everything to dry before doing the next steps.
       Then layer Mod Podge on top of the brown paint before painting on the pastel detailing. After applying several coats of the paint to the raised areas, brush on one last coating of Mod Podge. The chocolate will look so real that a little child may try to eat it! So keep these decorations up high on the egg tree limbs where they cannot be plucked from the branches by unsuspecting toddlers!

Dye Easter Eggs With Onion Skins


Author Charles Alexander (Sasha) Clarkson.
This is a picture of pace-eggs which I
prepared in the traditional Northumbrian
(Teesside and north) fashion by boiling white eggs
 wrapped in onion skins. In England these
 eggs are commonly referred to as "pace" eggs.
      When boiling eggs for Easter, a popular tan color can be achieved by boiling the eggs with onion skins. A greater variety of color may also be achieved by tying on the onion skin with different colored woolen yarn. In the North of England these are called pace-eggs or paste-eggs, from a dialectal form of Middle English pasche. They were usually eaten after an egg-jarping (egg-tapping) competition.
      In the North of England, at Eastertime, this traditional game is played where hard boiled pace eggs are distributed and each player hits the other player's egg with their own. This is known as "egg tapping", "egg dumping" or "egg jarping". The winner is the holder of the last intact egg. The losers get to eat their eggs. The annual egg jarping world championship is held every year over Easter in Peterlee Cricket Club. It is also practiced in Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Lebanon, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, and other countries. They call it tucanje. In parts of Austria, Bavaria and German-speaking Switzerland it is called Ostereiertitschen or Eierpecken. In parts of Europe it is also called epper, presumably from the German name Opfer, meaning "offering" and in Greece it is known as tsougrisma. In South Louisiana this practice is called Pocking Eggs and is slightly different. The Louisiana Creoles hold that the winner eats the eggs of the losers in each round.

In the video, the eggs are also dyed a second time in food coloring 
in order to add complex colors to the surface of the pace-eggs.