Another week great week of work on Book 1 of my Slavic fantasy series, and I can tell by my next post, the first draft will (hopefully) be done. Meanwhile, my Slavic Saturday posts continue a day late since I spent Saturday as the Easter Bunny. That had me thinking, though, about the origins of Easter egg hunts. And I was extremely excited when I found they come from Slavic pagan traditions, and I thought it would be fun to share what I found with all of you.
(June 2021 Updated) Note: If you enjoy Slavic mythology, check out A Dagger in the Winds, the first book in my Slavic fantasy series called The Frostmarked Chronicles. You can also join my monthly newsletter for updates and free novellas (such as the prequel, The Rider in the Night) set in the world of the series.
*As always just a quick disclaimer. Slavic mythology is broad and not written in many if any primary sources, so there’s a variety of interpretations. The interpretations I’m using here are from the sources I’ve found to be reliable and as well as some creative freedom for my book series.
Like many pagan traditions (such as the Germanic pagan tree that became the Christmas tree), the Slavic tradition of painting eggs and the hunts for those eggs were absorbed into Christianity and attached to nearby festivals. To the early Slavs, the egg represented new life, spring, and the victory of life over death. This is why the coloring and finding of eggs, called Pisanki in Polish, was part of spring festivals such as Topienie Marzanny that celebrated the end of winter and coming of spring. Designs and colors would be painted on the eggs to represent spring deities or other spirits. Winter in much of Eastern Europe is harsh and cold, so spring was (and still is) a joyous time where the cold ends. These themes, though, also show why it was so easily attached to Easter with the resurrection of Jesus.
In the end, we lack any serious details about the pagan rituals around the egg during these festivals, which (coming from a Christian) is a shame. Medieval Christians didn’t write down the pagan traditions, and what was built or written by the Slavs was usually burned or thrown in a river. Slavic gods simply were renamed to saints and festivals were replaced with Christian ones, so all that we know is from verbal traditions or things written by Romans or Christian missionaries, who considered the Slavs barbarians at the time.
Despite all of this, we do know that eggs were a large symbol in Slavic mythology as well as traditions. In one of the many disputed creation stories in Slavic paganism, Swarog (or another deity, such as Rod) created the world from a golden egg, beginning with his wife, Łada, and then moving on to the world tree of the realms of the gods (Prawia), living (Jawia), and dead (Nawia). The myth is not well documented but appears in some, especially Russian folklore, yet again showing the egg’s significance.
Another popular folkloric character named Koschei the Immortal (Kościej Nieśmiertelny in Polish) also draws from the significance of the egg in a monstrous yet oddly silly way. I’ll talk about him more in another post, but he’s an ominous figure who was unkillable because his soul was nested in various objects (usually involving an egg). On such example was it being inside a needle, which was in an egg, which was in a duck, which would flee when anyone tried to catch it.
So, when you’re painting Easter eggs and finding them with your family this weekend, you’re part of a tradition that’s lasted thousands of years. Whether a Christian or pagan tradition, it’s a fun part of the spring season, and during a tough year like this one, it’s a bit of fun that’s badly needed.
That’s all for this week’s Slavic Saturday. Be sure to keep a lookout for more posts next week, and if you haven’t seen the full series of posts, be sure to check them out.