RusCrafts

One particularly unique Russian craft is the tradition of the wooden Easter egg. These hand-crafted decorations are easily recognized around the world.

According to legend, the Russian emperor Tuberous was given an egg by Mary Magdalene, as an Easter present. His reaction to the then-new Christian religion was incredulity; he said that, “resurrection is as impossible as this egg’s turning red.” At that moment, the egg turned bright red in his hand, and ever since, Russian Orthodox Christians have exchanged eggs on Easter day.

As time went on, people began to desire a longer lasting Easter present, and soon had the idea of carving the egg from wood, and painting it with bright decorations.

The earliest crafted eggs were simply wood, lathed to shape, and painted with Bible scenes. It did not take long for other Russian craft traditions, such as laquer painting, to make their way onto wooden eggs. Towards the European Enlightenment Period, newer, fancier, craft methods, like papier mache and porcelain, appeared in Russia. These, too, were soon showing up in egg form.

The decorative Easter egg was a craft tradition that spanned the full spectrum of Russian society, from the peasants at the bottom, whose egg crafts were simple indeed and held longest to the quaint painted wood tradition, to the Royal Family at the top, where fabulous jeweled eggs eventually appeared. The most famous of these were crafted by the famous jeweler, Faberge, for the last Czar. One of these eggs was even featured in the 1983 James Bond film, Octopussy.