Let’s color our Easter!

Colored and decorated eggs have a very ancient history. Symbol of life that is born, among the Greeks, Chinese and Persians the egg was also the gift that was exchanged on the occasion of spring festivals, as a symbol of fertility and the eternal return of life.

Luc: every time I tell myself it’s the last time, but then I smell the scent of your hot chocolate… Madame Audel:… chocolate shells! So small, so simple, so innocent. I thought: oh, just a little taste can do no harm! But then I discovered that they were filled with rich, sinful… Yvette:… and she melts… God forgive me, it melts so slowly on the tongue and fills you with pleasure! (from the movie Chocolat)

Once upon a time there was a bunny who wanted to give two children, his friends, lots of Easter eggs . To surprise them, he was looking for a place to hide the eggs. At dawn she approached the children’s home with her bulging pouch. The lawn in front was all covered with crocus flowers, white, yellow and blue, which looked like many colored eggs. The bunny hid the eggs in the flowers and went home.

At sunrise an extraordinary thing happened: the flowers of the meadow became Easter eggs . A dove noticed this and went around spreading the news. Soon the meadow was filled with children, while the chocolate eggs continued to bloom. Even today, the old people of the village say that that was the sweetest Easter of all.

We can’t always spend the holidays as we would like and with whom we would like , especially this year. But we can do like the fairy tale bunny and give our family the sweetest and most colorful Easter of all.

Some ideas for decorating Easter eggs

Not everyone has the ability to manually create chocolate eggs at home, I prefer to rely on the experts and rather devote myself to coloring hard-boiled eggs  together with my daughter , to give as gifts or use to decorate the house and our Easter table.

Throughout the world the egg is the symbol of Easter . Painted or carved, in chocolate or sugar, terracotta or papier-mâché, the egg is an integral part of the anniversary. Colored and decorated eggs have a very ancient history.

Symbol of life that is born , among the Greeks, Chinese and Persians the egg was also the gift that was exchanged on the occasion of spring festivals, as a symbol of fertility and the eternal return of life. The ancient Romans, on the other hand, used to bury an egg painted red in their fields, to propitiate a good harvest.

The best and most effective procedure for coloring fresh eggs in a natural way is to cut fruit, vegetables or aromatic herbs into small pieces (filling at least two or three cups) to immerse in a saucepan with a liter of water, bringing everything to a boil. Then add the fresh eggs to the boiling water for 12 minutes, until completely hard-boiled. A good tip is to rub them with vinegar before cooking, immediately after dyeing them instead you can pass them in vegetable oil so that they are brighter.

To obtain various natural colors you can add the following ingredients to the egg cooking water , in variable quantities depending on the number of eggs and the shades you want to obtain, together with a teaspoon of vinegar to fix the colour.

• Yellow : saffron, turmeric or chamomile flowers
• Green : spinach, parsley
• Red and pink : cooked beetroot, red cabbage, red tea, karkadè
• Orange : onion skins, paprika
• Brown : coffee, cocoa, black tea
• Purple : grape juice, red wine
• Blue : blueberry

All that remains is to use your imagination to make very original eggs which, being colored using natural colors, are also edible . Experimenting, choosing colors and always obtaining different results is an activity that offers numerous benefits to children of all ages.

Egg hunt or picnic in the living room?

Typical of the Anglo-Saxon tradition, the Easter egg hunt is a fun game to organize even at home. Like all self-respecting treasure hunts, clues are needed . The latter must be suitable for the age of the children. With the little ones, who are not yet able to read, you can use visual clues (the photo or drawing of one of their dolls or toys, if you want to make them understand that the egg is hidden behind it, or the image of a room to further delimit the search area, etc…).

With older children, on the other hand, you can proceed as for a normal treasure hunt. Maybe for the occasion the clues can follow the Easter theme.

Each nursery rhyme, question, riddle, quiz, drawing or photo must be hidden in the various rooms of the house, accompanied by the colored eggs you have previously prepared, to create a path which will lead the children to a treasure (a chocolate egg, a gift, a stuffed rabbit or whatever you prefer).

But Easter (or rather Easter Monday) is also the time to organize a picnic … nothing prevents you from doing it at home of course! All you need is: a nice and comfortable plaid, some sandwiches filled according to your tastes, lots of colored plates and glasses and nothing else! After the packed lunch, you can spend the afternoon organizing a new challenge: paint your “dream” lawn on a piece of paper ! Who will win?