EMBROIDERED EGGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 June 1939, Page 4

EMBROIDERED EGGS

EASTER CUSTOM IN FRANCE. ' Eggs play an important part in Easter celebrations in France. All eggs at Easter are dyed red, a custom which goes back to Roman times, when it' celebrated the, birthday of an Emperor at whose birth a hen laid red eggs. Confectioners sell large chocolate eggs at Easter, and on all the cakes are eggs or little chicks. Toys for children are enclosed in wicker eggs and presents at Easter are presented in egg-shaped boxes.

In the Middle Ages, eggs were blessed in the churches before being given as gifts. Later, eggs were elaborately decorated and given as presents, and Watteau and Lancret, two famous painters of the time of Louis XV., did not disdain to paint miniatures, personages and. scenes on eggs. Embroidered eggs were a later fad, and at Rouen, there is still a citizen famous for embroidering eggs. After making a hole about the size of a sixpence in top and bottom, he works the designs in coloured silk thread, but many a wonderful pattern comes to grief before the needle has passed through the shell for the last time and the last knot is tied and the top and bottom of the shell replaced. All the bells fly to Rome on Good Friday, and France is silent until Easter morn, when the returned bells ring out the good tidings that Christ is risen. May they ring for peace is the devout wish of every Frenchman.