We always associate the beginning of spring with new life, the awakening of nature and Easter. To mark the occasion, people prepare many things for Easter, including colorful eggs. The history of egg dyeing is not new, moreover, numerous sources claim that the custom is thousands of years old.

Some historians claim that egg coloring comes from the ancient Persians who dyed colorful eggs for the Persian New Year Nowruz. Even today, many Persian families paint eggs in colorful colors for their new year.

It is not known exactly when Christians started coloring eggs for Easter, but it has been part of Easter traditions for centuries. When Christianity spread to Ukraine in the 10th century, the tradition of painting eggs with wax and paint, which were called pysanky or pisanki, began.

In the Greek Orthodox tradition, red eggs mark the moment when Mary Magdalene went to Jesus’ tomb and saw that it was empty, and all the eggs she was carrying in the basket turned red.

Certain theories go in the direction that it was forbidden to eat eggs during Lent, so people painted and decorated them to mark the end of Lent and then ate them for the Easter celebration.

Whichever theory is correct, the fact is that eggs are dyed for Easter as part of the custom. Personally, I don’t like colorful eggs, they are too artificial for me. I used to paint eggs in all possible colors (including pink), but over time I liked the idea of colorful eggs less and less and I gravitated more and more towards natural and ecological solutions.

For the last few years, I’ve been dyeing eggs exclusively with onion peel, and that’s the method I like the most at the moment. There is nothing more beautiful to me than beautiful, brown, naturally colored eggs. Considering that I love creativity of all kinds and forms, for the last few years I have been decorating eggs with plant leaves that leave beautiful marks on the eggs.

This is my recipe for eggs painted with onion skins. Well, actually, the recipe is from my mom, but since we dye eggs together, it’s almost mine, lol.

You will need:

• eggs
• onion peel (we start collecting onion peel after the new year)
• water

Put a few handfuls of onion skins in a large pot, place the eggs on them, sprinkle with the rest of the onion skins and cover with water. Put it to cook on low heat (if the heat is too strong, the eggs will start to crack), and after it boils, cook slowly for about 15 minutes. When the eggs are cooked, leave them in the water with the onion skins for another half hour, so that the color adheres well to the eggs.

Carefully remove the eggs from the water and place them on a kitchen towel to dry. In order for the eggs to be shiny, you can shine them or with a little bacon or a little oil.

How to make Easter eggs with imprints of plants?

The procedure is the same as when painting eggs, only we will need some additional little things:

• Plants – I pick various leaves, for example hazelnut leaf, rose leaf, clover, parsley leaf and similar
• clean nylon stocking
• thread and scissors

Wash the harvested leaves, carefully place the leaf on the egg (wet the egg a little to make it stick better), carefully put the egg in a nylon stocking and tie it tightly. After that, put it in a pot with onion skins and cook according to the instructions I gave above. When the eggs are cooked and you take them out of the pot, carefully remove the egg from the sock, remove the leaf and you will see a beautiful print on the egg.

I can guarantee you that you will not be able to find more beautiful eggs anywhere. In addition to being beautiful, the whole activity is also very creative, which is an added bonus.