EASTER EGGS: TRADITION HIDES A COLORFUL HISTORY

At left, Brooke Reeves, left, Rhonda Reeves, and Meaghin Reeves sorted through the eggs found during the hunt.

It's a tradition that dates back more than a millennium, a custom spawned by pagan societies, but kept alive today by its adoptive society of Christianity.

It's the Easter Egg and you thought it was just something to pacify the kids on Easter morning.

Before Easter Eggs were embraced by the Christian community, Pagan societies used them to celebrate the coming of spring.

Rev. Scott Lohse of Jackson, a Methodist preacher who decorates eggs Pysanky style (Ukrainian Easter eggs), said that before Christians took on the custom, pagans would place these marvelously decorated eggs in their fields for better crops.

They also placed them where their animals ate, because they believed it would lead to better animal husbandry.

Many families kept a bowl of decorated eggs in their home because they believed they would keep the family healthy.

If a woman hadn't been able to bear a child she was given a decorated egg to help her family grow.

Colored eggs were placed on the grave of a loved one and left until the next day.

If the eggs were undisturbed the family believed that their loved one's soul was safe in heaven. If the egg was missing or damaged, then the family needed to help their deceased loved one make it to heaven with prayers.

The eggs had many other uses as well that all revolved around a central belief that they had a power to give life.

The designs in Ukrainian Easter eggs now take on Christian meaning.

Christianity was introduced to Ukraine in 988 A.D. Easter Eggs that depicted the sun now took on a new meaning as the "Son."

Designs that once meant earth, wind and fire now meant the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the powers that the eggs were believed to hold were now attributed to God.

There are many crosses, nets (symbol of fishers of men) and roses (symbol of Christ) in the eggs being decorated today, Lohse said.

Lohse has been decorating the eggs for 20 years and said he has decorated more than 1,000 Ukrainian Easter eggs.

It takes him about three to five hours per egg. He now hollows out the eggs before he starts decorating because of an unfortunate incident in which an egg exploded in his mother-in-law's house when it got too hot.

The Pysanky process is tedious, requiring a steady hand and patience.

The tool used to create these works of art is a stick with a dye reservoir, Lohse said.

Wax is used to separate the colors. As each color is dyed, a layer of wax has to be applied to protect the area that is to stay that color, Lohse said.

Lohse has used hen eggs, goose eggs, ostrich eggs and bantam eggs for his art.

Lohse got involved with Pysanky because his wife Lynn's family had done it for years.

On Monday, Lohse will travel to the Annual Easter Egg Display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Ill.

The egg display runs for two weeks ever year. The display ends on April 6, this year.

Lohse said that the show also displays many other different forms of Easter eggs, including Lithuanian eggs, Japanese eggs and Russian eggs.