Luxembourg - Dying Easter Eggs the Romanian way

In Romania we are mostly Orthodox Christians so this year we celebrate Easter a week later than the Catholics. That is why this Easter related post comes now and not a week ago. I will not go into detail, pointing out the exact day in which Romanians are dying their Easter Eggs, because of course there is a certain day. Here in Luxembourg we had the chance to learn how to dye our Easter Eggs the traditional way, because Sebastian Paic a well known Romanian ethnologist came to teach us. I will lead you through the whole (or most of the) process with pictures and at some point, God willing (:D), I will have a video from Sebastian's workshops. You will find it on my fb page, Dichisuri.ro.

When we dye (for the sake of it I will use the term write or colour, because the terms in Romanian are exactly that), SO when we write on the eggs we (of course) use a pen. It is basically a copper wire wrapped around a wooden stick. BUT don't go making one for yourself, because there is a secret behind the thickness of the copper wire.

Also when we write on the Easter Eggs we don't just draw meaningless symbols, everything has to have a sense. That particular egg is from a museum close to Luxembourg, in Brussels (if I remember correctly), at the end you will see my funny attempt to reproduce it.

Sebastian had, of course, eggs coloured by him on display, so we could get a better understanding of the whole process.

Besides a pen you will need beeswax which is kept warm by a lamp

We coloured white empty eggs. Why empty? Because they can now be kept as decorations, as souvenirs from a lovely afternoon.

When colouring you start with the coordinates of the egg, similar to the picture 

And then you start painting, first yellow

Then red and at the end black

The whole process is interesting, you have to think two steps ahead, and think in layers, because after each layer of paint, you cover the pattern you want to be left in that colour with beeswax.

These are the paints

And this is my final product, at least I understood the techniques. Keep an eye on my Instagram as I will most probably post there my eatable Easter Eggs. 

SO, there you have it, writing on Easter eggs the Romanian way! I hope you loved reading this post as much as I loved putting it together! ALSO, if you fancy keeping in contact with me, drop a line at Dichisuri.ro on Facebook.

Raluca

Luxembourg - Emaischen in Nospelt and Luxembourg City

Sorry I haven't been around much lately and I hope to get on track soon, as I have quite a long list of posts to write, but that's the life of a freelance especially when that freelance wants a new camera :) Target accomplished, so back to the routine, now. I have to tell you that video content is on the way, I'm now fighting the Final Cut war :)

SO consider yourself up to date with my life, now about Emaischen. If you are with me for a while you know already that I love local, rural, ancient traditions. As the carnival season comes to an end in this region, the Easter preparations begin, the burning of winter, the pretzel Sunday and Emaischen.

Basically, on Easter Monday when everyone is sick of eating too much or spending too much time with the relatives, in a small town in Luxembourg called Nospelt and recently in Luxembourg City, there is a clay whistles shaped as birds market. Another reason to go out, walk the streets and socialise. The bird shaped clay whistles are called Peckvillercher and they are popular among children, but this celebration has an adult component as well. Traditionally lovers would exchange whistles, there are folk dances and singers on the streets and food and drink trucks, so overall a nice day out, especially if the weather helps.

This year we wanted to check out the celebrations in Nospelt, looking for the more traditional component of this celebration, but we went to Luxembourg City as well. On a minus side, year by year this celebration is turning more into a street fair and less into a clay whistles market, even the whistles are more commercial and less traditional, more machine made and less handmade. Such a pity!

Nonetheless, we met with our friends and took nice pictures and bought a clay turtle and at the end of the day Instagrammers Luxembourg shared my Instagram picture of the birds so all in all it was a good, relaxing day. Here are the pictures:

Picture from the Pottery Museum in Nospelt where there is a collection of clay whistles from around the world. Expect a post about that museum soon :)

SO, there you have it, Emaischen in Luxembourg! I hope you loved reading this post as much as I loved putting it together! ALSO, if you fancy keeping in contact with me, drop a line at Dichisuri.ro on Facebook.

Raluca

Belgium - Arlon Carnaval 2018

It's that time of the year again, the Carnival time! This year I only went to see the Carnival in Arlon and I've missed all of the Carnivals in Luxembourg, I just did not feel like going. I went to the one in Arlon and I am glad I did because it was the 40th edition and there were participants from Czechia and Poland on top of the regular participants from Germany, Luxembourg, France and Belgium, of course.

I have to point out that when I'm writing about Arlon Carnival I'm only writing about the parade (Grand Cavalcade) which took place on Sunday and not about the whole program which lasted the whole weekend, so three days.

On their website and leaflets I read that there were 50 groups participating in the parade and 12 brass bands, there were candies and other sweets and at the end there were the famous Gilles de Maurage which are similar to the Gilles de Binche the ones throwing oranges. The organisers provided some of the numbers and I have to say they are impressive: 4500 kg of confetti, 1500 kg of bonbons and 5000 oranges were used only by the participants in the parade.

I was in a weird state of mind so taking part in the parade and seeing all those smiling faces did me a lot of good. I hope that my pictures will get you in the same state:

If you liked this article or find it inspiring please do share it on social media and if you want to drop a line, you can find me at: Dichisuri.ro

Raluca