Happy Easter – Srećan Uskrs

We enjoyed the traditional Serbian Easter traditions last week during the long weekend. The Orthodox Easter is celebrated a week after the Catholic Easter. Above, is a video of the “egg-tapping” competition. This tradition started in Eastern Europe in the 1300’s and has now spread across the world. The egg is the pagan symbol of the renewal of spring and life. I never saw egg-tapping in Michigan. The champion in the video for this year was Ocean! Her egg didn’t crack. Late in the competition, Aca’s mother Mira gave Ocean a wooden egg, which is against the rules.

We had a second round of egg-tapping with our Romanian friends later in the day. Claudiu was explaining that while breaking the egg, they have the tradition phrase, “Christ Has Risen” which is answered by “Indeed, He has.”

We also liked coloring the eggs in the traditional Serbian method. We dyed the eggs in onion skins and it give it a deep red color. We bought some eggs with writing and Easter designs on them from the market, and when dyed, as you can see, they markings appear lighter. I don’t know what the acronym, XBBB means? It is in the Cyrillic script, and in Latin it would be HVVV. I know the “H” means Hristos (christ), but I don’t know what the three Vs mean. Any help from my Serbian readers? I also used some Easter Egg decorations from the company, http://www.jaje.rs. They have some great designs from based on ornaments from Serbian Medieval churches and monasteries. Very cool!