Among the Slavs, there are a variety of creation myths. One of them is of the Cosmic Egg, which represents the potential for life and the genesis of all we know.
The Cosmic Egg: A Universe Waiting to Hatch
Our story begins with a void—a vast expanse of nothingness where the seeds of the universe lays dormant. Within this primordial emptiness, a miracle occurred. An egg formed, and within this egg lay the seeds of all creation. It held the raw materials and forces necessary for the birth of the cosmos.
The Egg Cracks Open and a Universe is Born
The moment the Cosmic Egg cracks open marks the Slavic mythological equivalent of the Big Bang. As the egg’s shell fractured, it didn’t merely break apart; it gave structure the the chaos within.
The upper fragment of the shell ascended to form the heavens, like a vast dome across the sky.
The bottom part of the shell formed the Earth—a vast cradle that held all the mountains, valleys, rivers, oceans, and plains.
The Egg and Slavic Spirituality
The egg is a powerful symbol in many cultures. For the Slavs, it the egg was seen as both the beginning and the container of life, its breaking open was a metaphor for the sometimes chaotic process of creation. The belief that the upper shell contained the sky and the bottom shell contained the earth mirrors the dualistic nature of the world, where balance was achieved by the interplay of opposing forces.
Life and Humankind Sprung From a Rooster’s Egg
One of the myths about the creation of life in that when the universe was first created, it was completely barren. The gods wished for there to be more, so they send down a rooster which lay an egg of immense power. (Roosters don’t lay eggs, but whatever. We’re talking magical creation myths here, so there doesn’t have to be any logic.)
This egg cracked open and its golden yoke spread across the land. Everywhere the yoke touched, life sprang forth. A vast diversity of rivers, mountains, plants, animals, and humans arose from this golden yoke.
Faberge and Pisanki Easter Eggs: Modern Celebrations of the Cosmic Egg
The Cosmic Egg has remained an important symbol in Slavic culture. Its enduring legacy is most visible today in traditions and customs surrounding Easter Eggs, where Christian and pagan beliefs have blended.
In Slavic cultures, there is a long tradition of dying and decorating eggs in the spring that pre-dates Christianity. Archaeologists have found decorate clay and egg-shaped stones that date back to the 10th and 13th centuries, but the tradition of dying and decorating spring eggs is speculated to be at least a thousand years old.
There are many methods of decorating eggs, from pickling, to using wax and dyes, to watercolors, to oil paints, to removing the yoke and creating an egg-shell masterpiece by carefully breaking away parts of the shell so that it resembles lace.
The gold and silver Faberge eggs of Imperial Russia are perhaps the most famous decorated eggs.
I remember every Easter, there was a great deal of ceremony around placed around dying our “pisanki” Easter eggs.
First, the eggs would be hardboiled. Then, my grandmother would fill a vast pot with beets, red onions, and berries to dye the eggshells red. The eggs would be set aside to dry and cool. Then, we would use a sewing needle to scratch designs into the shell of the egg, which created white lines on a red background. We would draw geometric designs, and sometimes floral and tree patterns—symbolizing the World Tree, the rebirth of spring. By the end of this egg-decorating process, our fingers would all be stained red from handling the eggs.
Our spectacular designs did not last long, though, for these beautiful creations were intended for our traditional Polish Easter breakfast. (If you are planning on eating the eggs, it is very important to only use non-toxic, natural dyes.) We would pass around the basket of colorful eggs, each and break them apart, and eat them with salt and horseradish, nourishing our bodies with this vessel of life—a symbol of spring, of renewal, of the Cosmic Egg.
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