In a couple of days we are going to celebrate the most important Ortodox Christian Holiday – Easter. So this is the time for preparation and according to the Bulgarian tradition on the Thursday before Easter we paint eggs with which we are going to fight on Easter. That’s a lovely tradition which I very much liked when I was a child – I couldn’t wait for that day to get my hands “dirty” and use my imagination on creating some beautiful paintings on the eggs. Since I’m still a big kid in my mind I was looking forward to this :) An interesting thing is that each Easter I’ve spent home with my family so this year it was going to be different – much different. Apparently the Danes don’t pay much attention to Easter and they don’t paint eggs or make kozunak (traditional sweet Easter bread) which was too bad because we didn’t have the paint for the eggs (actually one of the Bulgarian girls here had only blue and purple colors left). I decided to go to the Bulgarian embassy here in Copenhagen to look for help but they also didn’t have any paint. Shame on them. So what should we do – the first egg must be painted red, not blue or purple. Well we decided to do it anyway – after all most important is the intention. We boiled some onion peals to make paint similar to red and with it we got one more color. That was enough for our small Bulgarian group so we spent an hour in the kitchen and did our best to preserve the tradition and feel a bit closer to home. You can see the result on the picture – it may not be fantastic but we’re proud of it :)
Tomorrow is the day for making kozunak – not an easy task (even for my mother and grandmother) but we have to try. I smell a disaster coming but we are going to eat exactly what we make so it better be good. Wish us luck :)
In a couple of days we are going to celebrate the most important Ortodox Christian Holiday – Easter. So this is the time for preparation and according to the Bulgarian tradition on the Thursday before Easter we paint eggs with which we are going to fight on Easter. That’s a lovely tradition which I very much liked when I was a child – I couldn’t wait for that day to get my hands “dirty” and use my imagination on creating some beautiful paintings on the eggs. Since I’m still a big kid in my mind I was looking forward to this :) An interesting thing is that each Easter I’ve spent home with my family so this year it was going to be different – much different. Apparently the Danes don’t pay much attention to Easter and they don’t paint eggs or make kozunak (traditional sweet Easter bread) which was too bad because we didn’t have the paint for the eggs (actually one of the Bulgarian girls here had only blue and purple colors left). I decided to go to the Bulgarian embassy here in Copenhagen to look for help but they also didn’t have any paint. Shame on them. So what should we do – the first egg must be painted red, not blue or purple. Well we decided to do it anyway – after all most important is the intention. We boiled some onion peals to make paint similar to red and with it we got one more color. That was enough for our small Bulgarian group so we spent an hour in the kitchen and did our best to preserve the tradition and feel a bit closer to home. You can see the result on the picture – it may not be fantastic but we’re proud of it :)
3 comments:
Hi, Ivo!
I'm happy to hear news from you! :) It seems to me that you have even got closer to the real traditions by using natural colours for painting the eggs. My grandmother still paints them in this way, unfortunately I don't know how she extracts the red colour. But as you've written, intentions are the most important.
I wish you a happy Easter!
Also good luck with the kozunak! :)
Tsveti:)
Thanks Tsveti,
Today we made the kozunak :) It took us 6 hours but at the end it was so delicious that we could lick our fingers! Can't wait for Easter to eat the rest :) I guess that everything is tastier when you cook it youself and put some effort in it.
Hristos Voskrese!
Yes, it sounds as if you've really had a memorable celebration! You're quite right: everything is tastier when you prepare it by yourself! Keep going in that way! :)
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