Posted: 4/9/03

Easter eggs showcase faith

Jessica Foster
Staff Writer

With each stroke of her stylus, Alice Skovran Nelson thinks of her Slovakian born mother, Mary Skovran. It was her mother who taught the Lindstrom woman to decorate Easter eggs in the Slovak style 55 years ago.

The 11th child of 13, Alice learned the craft as her sisters did, as her mother did from her mother in Czechoslovakia.

It was an art with meaningówith wax-drawn symbols representative of the Lenten season, Crucifixion of Christ and the Resurrection.

ìI learned it from my mother, who in turn learned it from her mother, who probably learned it from her mother,î Alice said.

Since she was 10-years-old, Alice has been decorating Easter eggs in her family way. Then, it was with recovered beeswax from sardine cans.

With melted beeswax, they would make the designs on blown or hard boiled eggs. The eggs would then be dyed, usually with natural ingredients such as onion skins. Then, the wax would be removed to reveal the bright symbols below.

ìThe egg is symbolic for Easter because the chick breaks out of the egg just as Christ broke out of the tomb,î she said.

Alice has modified the art over the years, and has switched from beeswax to melted crayons. She leaves the wax on now, in its brilliant colors.

She often dyes the eggs with natural ingredients such as onion skins, red cabbage and cranberry juice.

She uses hen eggs, and goose eggs, rhea eggs, ostrich eggsóany eggs she can get her hands on.

ìEaster is my holiday,î Alice said. ìWhen I think of Easter I think of what happened in the 40 days of Lent, I think of the Resurrection,î she said. ìWhen I do these eggs I think about Easter all of the time,î she said.

Aliceís eggs, while made by hand with consideration and memories of family and faith, look factory perfect.

The flaws, if any, are rare and slight. The lines are graceful and with purpose. Each line representing a chapter in the book of Christís Crucifixion and resurrection.

While Aliceís eggs are perfection now, she remembers when she began and they were wobbly.

ìYou just keep practicing and with practice comes the straight lines,î Alice said.

Her mother told her they would start out wobbly, become perfect and then get wobbly again, as they aged.

It is a memory of Aliceísóa memory which brings a tear to her eye as she thinks of her mother when the lines became wobbly. Then, Alice and her sisters would make the eggs for her.

Heritage

While her parents grew up in neighboring villages in Czechoslovakia, the two did not meet until they lived in Minneapolisí North East side. While in Minnesota, the family continued their heritage.

As members of the Carpetho Rusin Orthodox church, Easter wasnít a one day holiday, but an entire season.

Lent was very strict and luxuries were abandoned. Fasting was part of life.

The Saturday before Easter Sunday, Holy Saturday, was a fasting day, but it also was the day food would be prepared for the Easter feast.

The food had to be made Saturday as it was taken to church to be blessed that night. While temptations may have been tried, there was no taste testing.

ìThe smell in the kitchen was awesome but we didnít touch it,î Alice recalled.

Packed in a basket to be blessed was homemade bread, horseradish, cream sauce, ham, pork, polish sausage, veal, lamb, fresh whipped butter, homemade cottage cheese and Hrutka, a delicacy made of eggs, milk and salt.

ìEleven o-clock mass on Easter eve went to the wee hours of the morning,î Alice said.

When they arrived home after midnight, Alice and her brothers and sisters would celebrate being able to finally eat. ìThe first thing we did was get out the basket and get out the bread, get out the ham and make a sandwich,î she said. ìWho doesnít celebrate with food?î

Her mother, the consummate caretaker, would stay up late to ready the home for Easter morning, hanging fresh curtains and bringing in the spring season.

Symbols

While Alice designs a different egg each year, the symbols she uses do not vary.

The eggs depict Christís robe, the cross, loin cloth, sun of Easter morning, wheat and grapes (bread and wine), crown of thorns, nails of the Crucifixion and 40 lines drawn together to form a sphere represent world without end and the 40 days of lent.

Sometimes, there isnít room for 40 lines, sometimes she misses count.

ìMy mother always said more or less than 40 is significant of manís imperfection,î Alice explained.

Pussywillows also are a prominent design on Aliceís eggs.

While Catholics receive palm fronds the Sunday before Easter (Palm Sunday) those in Aliceís childhood religion brought pussywillows to church to be blessed.

ìIt was Willow Sunday or Blooming Sunday. In Czechoslovakia, pussywillows are everywhere,î Alice explained.

The branches were given to parishioners as they left church on Willow Sunday.

ìTheyíre such a reminder of spring and spring is Easter and Easter is the risen Lord,î Alice said.

Business

Alice has garnered a reputation for herself through the Slovak style eggs.

She has sold them to people throughout this country and abroad.

While Alice does do demonstrations of her art, she does not sell her wares at craft shows and the like.

ìThe hair on the back of my neck stands up when people say itís a craft,î she said.

It is for that reason she does not teach others how to decorate eggs. She worries about people putting cutesy designs with the wax.

She said, given the religious base of the designs, it is more than putting wax on an egg.

ìItís my way of saying Christ is risen,î Alice said. ìItís a lot of work but itís not work to me. I can sit by the hot plate and think of Easter. My mom, sheís on my mind a lot.î

Tradition continues

While Alice now is a Lutheran, she continues with the art form, and has passed it on to her five children and, as her grandchildren celebrate their tenth birthday, they also start to decorate eggs.

ìItís an art that is not expensive, but you need to be careful,î Alice said, not wanting her grandchildren to be burned with hot wax.

Too, each child and grandchild, and there are 14 of them now, their smiling faces hung in neat rows on the kitchen wall, receives an egg each Easter.

ìDuring Holy Week is when I do the eggs for the kids and grandchildren,î Alice said. ìI like to be done by Palm Sunday.î

She shares her eggs, just as her mother did.

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