Do you colour Easter Eggs?

pmcleanj said:

If so, how do you justify demeaning this holy season with such an obviously pagan accretion?

If not, why do you deprive your children of such an innocent pleasure that helps them connect evangelically with mainstream society?

Okay, my real questions are, what days of the Easter/Lenten season do you find yourself sitting down at the craft table with a bowl of eggs? Do you do the highly detailed wax-resist pysanka? or do you do a gayer freer kind of art? What kind of dyes do you use (especially for pysanka -- I can't find anything that gives the vibrant colours they should have)? Do you blow your eggs and dye the hollow shells? Or dye them boiled and then eat them, discarding all that precious artwork and turning a blind eye to the bilious stains on the eggwhite? Or dye them raw, and let the centres dry out over the years?

Inquiring minds want to know ...

Click to expand...

Our eggs are brown, so no

It was never a big thing in our family. I did it once at a friend's house, but frankly I found it boring.

But if you guys find it fun, have a blast lol.

We used to dye eggs on the Saturday before, and I usually just used a commercial product for dying. We hard-boil the eggs, so the pretty dye just got discarded.

Since I joined an Orthodox parish with a Russian tradition, I have found that they generally use brown eggs (for a richer red) and they use beets or other food-based dyes for the red.

I dyed some last year, but I didn't get the dark red that I hoped for. Didn't dye any this year - too many other things to do!

Our parish has an egg hunt after Paschal Vespers on Sunday afternoon. It was cold this year, but the kids didn't notice.

Mary

For years we dyed a dozen or more with different off-the-shelf dye varieties and then a mixture of all of them. When the kids were younger I would hide them the night before Easter and they would look for them on Easter morning. However, my son got bored with it a few years ago and last year I realised that I was having more fun than daughter! So with her off at college this year we let the tradition fade out. For now, anyway. I'm willing to wait quite a few years for grandchildren.

pmcleanj said:

If so, how do you justify demeaning this holy season with such an obviously pagan accretion?

If not, why do you deprive your children of such an innocent pleasure that helps them connect evangelically with mainstream society?

Okay, my real questions are, what days of the Easter/Lenten season do you find yourself sitting down at the craft table with a bowl of eggs? Do you do the highly detailed wax-resist pysanka? or do you do a gayer freer kind of art? What kind of dyes do you use (especially for pysanka -- I can't find anything that gives the vibrant colours they should have)? Do you blow your eggs and dye the hollow shells? Or dye them boiled and then eat them, discarding all that precious artwork and turning a blind eye to the bilious stains on the eggwhite? Or dye them raw, and let the centres dry out over the years?

Inquiring minds want to know ...

Click to expand...

This year we had our kid's club kids dye eggs at an assisted living center in town and invited the residents to join us. We've done two intergenerational activities there and the residents and especially the kids really like it. THe kids always ask when they get to go back!

I buy the little tablets, mix them with vinegar and water, give the kids wax crayons and that's it. THis year there were stickers that you can put on the eggs before dying them and then take them off to get a pattern.

I have at least 3 dozen hardboiled dyed eggs in my fridge still, looks like a week for lots of deviled eggs!

I think the pagans had the right idea with a lot of the celebrations we have adopted and adapted from them, this one is great fun.

We do tend to hide plastic rather than hardboiled eggs, though. Easier on everyone.

I never did it growing up, but my wife did. We plan on coloring eggs when we have children.

pmcleanj said:

If so, how do you justify demeaning this holy season with such an obviously pagan accretion?

Click to expand...

Now do you colour them or do you color them? Let's start a real battle!
Do you realise you are COLORing your text the "DarkOrchid" COLOR?

pmcleanj said:

[COLOUR="DarkOrchid"]If so, how do you justify demeaning this holy season with such an obviously pagan accretion?[/COLOUR]

Click to expand...

Fixed; well, not quite.

CSMR said:

Now do you colour them or do you color them? Let's start a real battle!
Do you realise you are COLORing your text the "DarkOrchid" COLOR?

Fixed; well, not quite.

Click to expand...

My wife does, and the children love helping.