An old tradition- Sorbische Ostereier

Hello everyone!!!

As most of you will have noticed, I was away from my computer for the past couple of weeks. I am presently on holiday (students of all levels get two weeks off for Easter- what can I say, it's
good to be a teacher here in Germany!) and so I went to Lübbenau to spend time with my oyster, although he, unlike me, only got two days off for the egg holiday (but that's probably one day more than most of you got). Easter is very celebrated here in Germany and mostly everyone gets both Karfreitag (Good Friday) and Ostermontag (Easter Monday) off.

We spent Good Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Ronny's aunt and uncle who live in Bavaria- more precisely in Ingolstadt. We had a lovely time- stay tuned to hear more about this old city and to see some pictures.


While Ronny was hard at work, I kept myself busy by catching up on a few things that needed catching up on, namely, sleep, German trash-TV and then a little more sleep! But I also managed to be slightly productive. Last Thursday, I learned how to decorate eggs using the old Sorbian technique. The Sorbs are a Slavonic nation settled in Lusatia, a region on the territory of Germany and Poland. Today, there are approximately 60 000 people with Sorbian roots left. Many of them live in and around the Spreewald region.

The owner of a small shop in Lübbenau had invited an artist that specializes in decorating eggs using the Sorbian technique, and had told me to come by if I was interested in learning how to make my own egg. Seeing the ones on display in the shop, the decision was easy to make: Of course I'll come by!
So there I was, on Thursday afternoon, eager to learn how to make a Sorbian egg. What is the Sorbian technique you ask? The Sorbian technique consists of applying beeswax to an egg using quills and then dipping the egg in colour. The quills are made from geese feathers, which are "carved" into different shapes. You need to dip the quill into the beeswax and then apply it to the egg, following the pattern that you have chosen of course. In between the different steps, you dip your egg in jars of colours- the regions that have received wax do not absorb the colour, which is what you want. I thought that using the quills would be tricky, but you quickly get the hang of it- which does not mean that my wax application was perfect- far from it, but I did what I could and I think that the end result is pretty good for my first Sorbian egg! Once all the wax has been applied and the egg has been dipped in its last colour bath, you need to carefully bring the egg next to a flame to melt away the wax. By doing so, the regions that were protected by the wax will reveal their original colour. The last step is to empty the egg. Sorbian eggs only have one hole. How then is the egg emptied you wonder? The egg is emptied using a special pump that pushes the egg yolk and white out of the egg. It's the most delicate step of the whole Sorbian egg decorating process, and I let my teacher empty my egg for me, as I did not want to break my egg after all the work I had put into decorating it! It takes about an hour and a half to two hours to decorate each egg, depending on the pattern you choose and on how experienced you are. It is interesting to note that Sorbian eggs are actually not really made for Easter. Sorbian eggs are made throughout the year. The shape of the quills represent different things, and by looking at an egg's pattern, you can tell whether is was made to bring someone luck, love, health or joy, for example.

Everything you need to decorate an egg- Sorbian style!

Quills of different shapes and sizes, all made with geese feathers

Jars of colour. The beeswax is kept liquid by the heat of a tea candle.

Step 1: The first wax and colour application.

Step 2: The second wax application and colour dipping.
Looking good so far!

Step 3: The third wax application and
the last dip in colour.

The end result! Can you tell which one is mine?!?!?

I found this website that explains the procedure to Sorbian egg decoration using a step by step instruction. It's worth a look- the way the instructions were translated is hilarious!!

http://www.grundschule-pretzschendorf.de/en/Handicrafts/Easter_eggs/guidance.html