Saturday, 11 April 2009

Frohe Ostern — Happy Easter

Was Osterbräuche angeht, so unterscheiden sich England und Deutschland ein weiteres Mal. Wärend es in Deutschland üblich ist, Sträuche mit bemalten oder gefärbten Eiern zu schmücken, findet man solcherlei in England nicht. Das in der Heimat übliche Färben von Eiern ist hier ebenfalls nicht Teil der Ostertradition, und so ist es auch nicht möglich, Eierfarben zu kaufen. Da Ostern ohne Eierfärben aber nicht geht, mussten also Alternativen gefunden werden (ja Zwiebelschalen gingen, aber waren auch nicht zur Hand). Die im Backregal im Supermarkt gefundenen Lebensmittelfarben waren zwar nicht perfekt, haben den Eiern aber wenigstens einen Hauch Farbe verliehen. Willem fand das ganze total langweilig und hat die meiste Zeit geratzt.


Easter traditions in England and Germany are yet another area of cultural differences. While we decorate branches and bushes with eggs that have been dyed or painted in some way, there does not seem to be any of the sort over here. Dyeing of eggs, an essential part of the German Easter tradition, is equally unheard of so that it is nigh on impossible to buy appropriate egg dyes. Because Easter without coloured eggs is simply not an option, alternative means were explored. The food colourings that I found in the baking section of the supermarket were not perfect for the job, but at least they have given the eggs a slight hue of blue, green and red. Willem dozed off fairly quickly and was not very impressed this time round.

4 comments:

  1. Really? I hadn't missed them when we were there, but dyed eggs are certainly a Canadian thing, boxes of dye and stickers and sparkle and who-knows-what-else are available in every corner store! But we use the standard food dyes, with a tablespoon of white vinegar thrown in, seems to seal the deal a bit better. The ones you did look lovely, though. I'm particularly impressed with the red!
    Willem will be all over those things next year :)

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  2. And some of our neighbours have hung eggs from their trees...

    And the Joseph Schneider Haus Museum down the road had activities today including 'making Easter cheese, onion-dyeing Easter Eggs and scratch-decorating them Pennsylvania-German style'.

    Your eggs look mighty fine.

    Happy Easter you three.

    Josh.

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  3. Hmmm, even after 8 yrs I might still be totally ignorant of the UK Easter tradition, but it does not seem to be the same over here. Obviously you seem to have some of that German tradition over there...

    I put the eggs in 2.5% vinegar for a minute and then chucked in a whole (small) bottle of food dye into about 800 ml of water and boiled them. The red ones indeed worked best.

    Happy Easter!
    Hendrik

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  4. Hi,

    do you remember the small tree in front of the house i grown up? The neighbors always hang a lot of eggs in that tree - till that year i had an air-gun... Wohoo - what a fun! ;-)

    Happy Easter!

    Joerky

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