Georgian Orthodox Easter

This year the Orthodox Easter arrived a month after the rest of the western Christian world. These little bundles of sticks--roots from the Rubia plant--started to appear at every fruit stand. They produce the red pigment for dying eggs. We decided to give them a try.

After scrubbing the roots very clean, I pounded them to release the magic--a lump of granite I found outside worked perfectly. Then the roots simmered in a large pot of water.

The mixture turns deep crimson after some time, and when cooled it can be used for hardboiling the raw eggs.

I was surprised how well they turned out. The eggs were a beautiful dark red and, miraculously, the natural dye does not penetrate the shell, so the eggs inside are perfectly white when peeled. The Georgians usually place the dyed eggs on a plate of sprouted green wheat grass (which they start growing a week or so beforehand). The red color of course signifies Christ's blood, and the eggs and wheat grass represent new life. Such beautiful symbolism, I wish I had sprouted grass, but I'll surely do it next year.

I couldn't help but stop and compare it with the synthetic pastel dyes, jelly beans, and fake grass we employ in the States, and marvel at the vapid commercialism that has replaced this purely religious holiday.

Easter is the most significant holiday in Georgia. Many Georgians observe Lent by abiding an essentially vegan diet for 40 days. On Easter morning they attend a church service that begins at midnight, so they can start the holiday right. These services can go till four in the morning. To break their fast they eat the eggs with Paskha, an Easter cake baked only during this season for the holiday.

Then the whole city shuts down for the weekend and everyone decamps to the local villages from whence they originated to visit the gravesites of deceased family members. They hold a feast in their honor, and they actually bring a table with all the supra fixings to the cemetery and eat onsite. And those red eggs aren't all holy symbolism, the children play a cracking game wherein whoever's egg stays intact keeps the loser's.

We enjoyed learning about new ways to observe a holiday we already hold sacred, and look forward to incorporating some of these traditions into our family practice.