Another Easter is upon us. For some the religious
significance makes it a period of celebration, for others (myself included) it
is an excuse to eat a lot of chocolate!
I usually do very little to mark the occasion besides
enjoying the long weekend with family and friends and buying Easter eggs for my
nearest and dearest. This differs significantly from my Christmas preparations,
which start early December in earnest. One of my absolute favourite things
about Christmas is decorating the house. I usually have a beautiful tree,
ornaments and displays throughout the living areas, baubles hanging from the
railing in the stairwell and a wreath on the front door.
When it comes to Easter I have no such tradition. So I
thought this year I could do a little something to reflect the time of year.
I have a dozen or more of these beautiful hand painted papier mache eggs from Kashmir. I put them in a simple wire bowl and placed them on the coffee table.
Several years ago my husband and I were in Prague over the
Easter long weekend. We saw hundreds of these beautifully decorated eggs being
sold in markets all over the city.
They are hand painted eggs called kraslice and are one of the most recognisable symbols of Czech
Easter (as I’m sure they are across other parts of Europe). They come in many variations and colours, but
I was oddly drawn to the simple blue and white ones and I bought some as a
souvenir.
I have finally gotten around to digging them out of a
storage box in the loft (where a lot of my souvenirs lurk) and creating a little
display (below) using a simple glass vase, some rocks and a large twig that I
found in the garden. So simple.
As you can see from the images below there is no shortage of
ways to display these beautiful eggs.
Source: Raphael International
Iconic decorated trees
in Germany and Austria are a
common Easter sight. This one is the notable
Saalfelder Ostereierbaum in Thuringia,
Germany.
Source: Volker Kraft
Source: Volker Kraft
I don’t think I’ll be going to any of these lengths, but it
was nice to finally dig these beauties out of storage and use them for their
intended purpose. Perhaps next year I
can add a little embellishment to the display.
Happy Easter!
