Decorating eggshells, especially those of ostriches, predates the Christian tradition by at least 3,000 years. The ancient Sumerians and Egyptians commonly placed decorated eggs, or their representations in gold and silver, in graves.
Thus, the Christian adaptation of decorating eggs can be traced to the early Christians of Mesopotamia, who stained eggs red in memory of the blood Christ shed at his crucifixion. Moreover, the egg’s hard shell symbolized the sealed door of Christ’s tomb and its cracking His resurrection from the dead. St. Augustine described Christ’s Resurrection as a chick bursting from an egg.
According to tradition, St. Mary Magdalene, depicted in art through the ages with various identities–patrician, sinner, saint, courtesan, penitent, intellectual and apostle–at an audience in Rome with the Emperor Tiberius denounced Pontius Pilate for his scandalous handling of Jesus’ trial and told the Emperor “Christ has risen”. Unmoved, the Emperor scathingly pointed to an egg on his table and announced: “Christ has no more risen than that this egg is red.” Instantaneously the emperor’s egg turned crimson.
Instead, a Polish legend recounts that when Mary Magdalene went to Jesus’ tomb to anoint his body for burial, she was bringing cooked eggs to share with the other women there. She uncovered the basket and, when the risen Christ appeared to her, her eggs miraculously turned red. Still today eggs dyed red, especially in Eastern Europe, often accompany other traditional Easter foods.
It might be interesting to note that from March 27-July 10 the mega-exhibition of over 200 works-of-art, Maddalena: Il mistero e l’immagine, will be on view in Forlì. It will include paintings, sculptures, miniatures, tapestries, engravings and silver.
These will be on loan from many prestigious Italian institutions such as the Accademia in Venice, the Ambrosiana in Milan, the Uffizi in Florence and Capodimonte in Naples, as well as international museums such as the Vatican, Vienna’s Kunsthistorische Museum and the Musée D’Orsay in Paris, to name a few.
The earliest work is a Puglian crater showing the death of Meleager (360-340 B.C) on loan from Capodimonte (included here to depict the aesthetics of suffering in ancient art) and the most recent, Marc Chagall’s Deposition from the Cross (1968-76), on loan from The Pompidou Center in Paris.
Other world-famous artists include Donatello, Bellini, Titian, De Chirico and Guttuso among others, but bewilderingly, no work depicts the saint holding a red egg.
To return to Easter traditions, The Roman Ritual, the first edition of which was published in 1610 but which contains texts of much older date, has among the “Easter Blessings of Food”–along with those for lamb, bread and new produce–the following blessings for eggs, which were forbidden food during Lent as were meat and dairy products:
“Lord, let the grace of your blessing come upon these eggs, that they be healthful food for your faithful who eat them in thanksgiving for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever.”
Besides eggs, the symbol of Easter worldwide, now often made of chocolate, there are many traditional celebratory dishes. The most universal in Eastern Europe, Greece, Italy, and the UK, is roasted milk-fed baby lamb (which have not yet tasted grass).
Other local dishes are Pashka from Russia and the Ukraine, a pyramid-shaped dessert made from cheese and often decorated with religious symbols, such as the letters XB for “Christos Voskros”, which means “Christ is Risen”; Pinca, from Slovenia and Croatia, a large hot cross bun;
Tsoureki from Greece, a brioche-like bread flavored with an essence drawn from the seed of wild cherries and decorated with hard boiled eggs dyed red; Mona de Pascua, from Spain, an Easter cake resembling a large doughnut topped with a hardboiled egg; the sweetly spiced Hot Cross Bun from the UK, as are simnel cakes or fruit cakes topped with 11 or 12 marzipan balls to symbolize the Apostles; Capirotada from Mexico, a spicy bread pudding filled with raisins, cloves, cinnamon, and cheese. The cloves symbolize the nails, the cinnamon sticks the wooden cross, and the bread the body of Christ.
Then there is Kulich, from Bulgaria, Georgia and Russia, a cake baked in a tall tin and decorated with white icing and colorful flower-shaped sprinkles, and finally, Paçoca de Amendolm, from Brazil, a sweet made from peanuts, sugar, and cassava flour.
In Italy there are many Easter cakes: the omnipresent dove-shaped Colomba similar in taste to the Christmas panettone with its candied fruits and sugar-coated almonds; the Neapolitan pastiera, a pie doused with orange-blossom water and filled with ricotta, chocolate chips, candied fruit, grain and a hidden gold coin at its center; an Umbrian pungent pecorino cheese and grated pepper cake to eat with salami at Easter breakfast and Sicilian marzipan lambs, cassata and cannoli.
There’s an Italian saying: “Natale con i tuoi; Pasqua con chi vuoi” (“Christmas with your family and Easter with whoever you choose”). After the ubiquitous salami, lasagna or ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta, and before the sweets, to accompany their lamb, artichokes, puntarelle, asparagus and fava beans are Italy’s favorite side dishes. Easter Monday, “Pasquetta” or “Lunedì dell’Angelo” is also a holiday and traditionally the first picnic/barbecue of the year.
For the best selection in Rome of top-quality Easter specialties: Eataly (Piazzale XII Ottobre 1492), Volpetti (Via Marmorata 47) and Castroni (Via Cola di Rienzo); and for customized eggs and sweets, Giuliani (Via Paolo Emilio 67) near the Vatican, La Bottega del Cioccolato (Via Leonina 82) near the Colosseum, and Mariondo e Gariglio behind the Pantheon. For memorable Easter lunches in the Eternal City I recommend Alessio, Cantina e Cucina, Osteria del Cavaliere, Arlù, Roscioli and Antico Arco.
Certainly, another important destination on any Italian Easter gastronomic tour is Sicily: Modica for chocolate and the hilltop town of Erice above Trapani, famous for its pastry shops: Antica Pasticceria del Convento, Pasticceria San Carlo and Pasticceria Maria Grammatico. If you haven’t already, read her story and follow her recipes in Mary Taylor Simeti’s biography, Bitter Almonds: Recollections and Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood, also available in Italian. Another must-read for lovers of Italian cucina is Simeti’s Pomp & Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food.
