Written by Lorraine Grochowska Kiefer Wednesday, 29 March 2006 17:00
Most people who have been to Poland will remember the huge storks nesting atop barns and cottages. These beloved birds come back each March, usually on March 19, St. Joseph's Day, or, the feast of the Annunciation, March 25. These storks, or "bociany" of old Polish legend, are considered to be kindred spirits of man, with many human qualities.
The ancient story says that frogs, lizards, snails and other pests were multiplying excessively and causing great problems. God gathered them all in a sack and told a man to empty the sack into the sea. Curiosity got the best of the poor human and he opened the sack! All escaped, so God changed the man into a stork to hunt them.
Read more: Some Lesser-known Traditions of Polish Spring, Lent and Easter
The simplest technique of painting eggs (eggs in Polish are called jaja or jajka) which I remember from my childchood in Silesia - was painting the eggs in natural dyes. For instance eggs cooked in onion skins give a pretty medium light brown color or in redbeets give a deep red. Such eggs are still healthy to eat even if the onions penetrated through the eggs changing its coloration inside. The one-colored eggs looks beautiful in the Easter basket if we have each egg in a different color. The less common natural dyes used for coloring eggs were - leaves of birch or alder which give a beautiful yellow color, carrot and pumpkin for orange, fruit of blackthorn for blue or different grasses and nettle for green. Mixing different main colors gives practically all possible color shades. Check the recipe how to prepare kraszanki from onion skins.
