This colored eggs, were taken in Romania when I visited a neighbor, at Orthodox Eastern, in a house I lived for a month. So many of them, so beautiful !
Eggs used to cost a lot of money, no more, for us at least.
Eggs, are also used for Seder, the first evening of Jewish Eastern and I found out from Google, eggs signify sorrow and are offered also when someone dies. So many traditions are interconnected in some ways from different religions.
One egg.
I was 11 years old, and we just escaped the Nazis, after a year of hiding with papers of an other family, and going from place to place. We were hiding the last three month in a cellar of a villa in Buda. The house was half destroyed by Russian canons but the cellar and first level was still staying when the Soviet (Russian or Turkestan) soldier come in.
For the soldiers, all women they like were fair game. One night, they come, stolen as much as they wanted and left a paper for my mother to come to "potatoes duty" in their camp. We escaped departing at 5 in the morning, so my mother not be raped by their soldiers, by passing the large river Danube from Buda to Pest. As all the bridges were bombed and destroyed, when the German army went away, we crossed on the yet frozen river.
We went to live for a few days to my mother cousin and my father tried to find a way to go back to Kolozsvar, Cluj-Napica now, Transylvania, from where we come when we fled for a year peregrination and hiding from Hungarian Nazis. The cousins gave us shelter, not food. After a few days we begun to feel more the absence of food, perhaps the only time in my life, as my parents always gave me whatever was available.
We could not bring any food with us. We did have a little but even that would have been too heavy. The ice on the river not strong enough in March any more, others died because of the weight and the ice broking. As our family crossed early in the morning slowly, the Ice did not Brake (title of my Toastmasters Icebreaker).
One morning, I went down to a neighbor living in a lower level: she offered me an EGG !
I still see myself there, going "home" and showing my mother my treasure. A real egg! An egg to eat! I remember that egg in my hand. Feel it still now, so many years later. We begun to discuss with my mother, how to prepare it. Finally, I accepted to boil it in water, as my mother explained, it is how I do not loose any of it.
The egg was enjoyed. Egg remained a special treat for me. Three minutes egg, spooned out from its cock or scrambled or 10 minutes boiled and sliced.
We did not eat an egg or fresh fruits or vegetables for month, by then. Shells were coming down on houses for months, we were not allowed to go out, we lived from what we had taken from the last place we were in a village. In that cellar, for three month. I got one apple in three month from one other cellar the house nearby and that was a special joy.
From the coloured eggs you see in this blog, I was offered three and got to eat one each day with pleasure, as where I lived that time, I did not got yet a heater or boiler in the kitchen. Not because there was not enough food to eat.
Eggs are hidden in French families and kids asked to find them, Eastern time. Matzos is hidden in some Jewish tradition and kids asked to find them. Eggs are eaten Eastern time, as each remembers something else, as reason to celebrate - the spring that is coming, in my opinion. Or the Escape from being slaves in Egypt. Or the rebirth of Christ. Both religions use EGG for different reasons or symbols, both celebrate at almost same date. In Transylvania, we made colored eggs to offer to boys if they come in visit with perfume, no more with water. In the villages, girls where taken near the fountain...
I celebrate that I do have one Egg, a few eggs! Taste it, savor it. Remember.
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