Some Remarkably Good Romanian Eggs
Ornamental eggs are a signature craft of Eastern Europe. The jeweled Fabergé versions once cherished by Russian nobility are just a high-end version a humbler, older and even more remarkable Easter tradition.
Created on a minute scale and entirely by hand, the art of painting eggs is a careful one. The designs may be simple or complicated, figurative or abstract, and consist of a few or many colors. Nowhere, however, do they have the crisp, delicate geometry of the eggs produced in the northern Romanian town of Ciocăneşti. Located in a historic region that’s partly situated in present-day Ukraine, Ciocăneşti is so attractively preserved that it is considered a museum of Eastern European village life.
The buildings here are distinctive for their elaborate, embroidered-looking motifs, and the town’s several dozen egg-painters work in the same style. There’s an old Romanian saying that holds that when people stop coloring eggs at Easter, the world will end. Is it out of such fear that the humble craftswomen of Ciocăneşti continue to teach the skill to their daughters? Either way, it gets passed on.
Read more about the Romanian egg painters here.
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