Easter

– Kate, have a look! What’s in his hat?
– Eggs!?
– Have you robbed the hen house? What are you going to do with all these eggs?
– Do you want to see your name in the famous Guinness Book of Records and set a record in, say…frying the biggest omelette, or…?
– Or…the baby chicks hatch?
– Wait! Don’t teach your granny to suck eggs! (Яйца курицу не учат.) Easter is coming. You would rather help me. Take your paint and brush. Let’s hold a contest for the best Easter egg. Do you like the idea?
– Great! But … gosh! You have forgotten to boil them.
– Never mind! It’s just ten minutes work!
– Well, while we boil these eggs, let’s learn about Easter. But who will help us?
– What a question to ask! My hat! There is something at the bottom. Here you are!
– Who are you?
– I’m the most famous egg in the English-speaking world. Haven’t you heard the riddle about me?
– No!
– I don’t think I have!
– Well, I’m Humpty-Dumpty and this is my short story.
Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Could not put Humpty together again.
– Yes, I know your Russian name. You are Шалтай-болтай. But I’ve never known you were an egg, sorry, Mister Egg.
Шалтай-Болтай сидел на стене,
Шалтай-Болтай свалился во сне.
Вся королевская конница, вся королевская рать
Не может Шалтая, не может Болтая,
Шалтая-Болтая собрать.
– Thank you. Now all Russian children will learn about me.
– Then you must learn everything about Easter.
– Exactly and I’m here to tell you what I know.

Easter is the main feast of the Christian year. It is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first spring new moon.
It commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the revival of life.
Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday, including Good Friday, the day of the crucifixion, and finishes with Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday the day of resurrection.
At Easter the sun shines brightly and brings joy to our hearts.
This is why in ancient times villagers would come out of their huts to see the sun shining playfully, promising good harvest and good health.
On Holy Saturday, Orthodox Christians go to church. They consecrate the kulich and paskha and painted eggs, which the family eat on Easter Sunday. The food is especially tasty as it ends the 40-day season of Lent.
The Easter feast continues for a whole week. The bells ring, people congratulate and kiss one another, exchange gifts and painted eggs and exclaim: “Christ has risen!”
The egg is a symbol of life and fertility. It is believed that the egg can save you from the evil eye and take upon itself all your pain. The villagers still put the Easter egg in a small sack and hang it under the roof of the house to protect it from fire.
The favourite pastime at Easter is egg rolling. Chutes are made of wood, then laid on a slope and hard-boiled eggs are rolled down the chutes. If your egg strikes and smashes another egg and remains intact itself, you are the winner. Your prize is all the smashed eggs.
You can even go with your egg-winner to Washington and take part in the traditional annual egg rolling on the lawn in front of the White House. It is the only day in the year when people can play there. Probably you will see the President.

The origin of the name is unknown. Scholars, however, believe it probably comes from Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility, to whom a month corresponding to April was dedicated.
The Russian word “Paskha” is probably derived from the Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach, another name for Easter.
– Thank you Mr. Egg.
– I think our eggs are hard boiled and we can begin our competition.

Ideas for Easter

I. Dye a traditionally British egg.
1. Take a white egg and any thread.
2. Wind many circles of the thread round the egg in different directions.
3. You can make various patterns on the egg.
4. Put it in a pan with water of any colour to dye. You can buy special paint for dying eggs everywhere.
5. Be sure that your egg is hard-boiled. Dye it for half an hour.
6. Take it out carefully, put under the cold running water.
7. Unwind the thread, dry the egg and grease it with oil to glisten.
8. Give it as a present to anyone you love.

II. Dye a traditionally Russian egg.
1. Take some white eggs and onion-skins.
2. Put everything in a pan with water.
3. Dye them till you get the colour you like. The more you boil your eggs the more intense the colour you get. Thus you can get colours from yellow to dark brown.
4. Take the eggs out carefully, put under cold running water, dry and grease with oil to shine.

III. Make the simplest Easter egg.
1. Take an egg and cover it with glue.
2. Put grains of buckwheat, rice, millet on a plate and roll your glued egg over the grains several times. Your egg is ready when it is completely covered.

IV. You can think of other ways of decorating Easter eggs, just use your imagination. (You can have a contest.)

V. Embroider your Easter egg on a piece of cloth, put the picture in a frame and trim your room with it.

VI. Cut out egg-holders and nest your coloured eggs in them.

VII. Cook a traditional Russian Kulich.

Read an Easter Story.
Once a country girl went to the market to sell her eggs. She put all the eggs in a basket. The basket was very heavy. So the girl put the basket on her head and went to town. The way was not very short and to while away the time, the girl got lost in her dreams.
– When I sell the eggs, I’ll get the money. With this money I’ll go to the shop and buy a new white dress to wear to the Spring Carnival. The girls will envy my beauty. The boys will blow me kisses. I’ll be crowned the Carnival queen. I’ll make a curtsey and bow my thanks like this.
Can you guess what happened the next moment? Of course! The girl forgot about her basket, used her hands to drop a curtsey, bowed her head and…all the eggs fell and smashed together with the new dress and sweet dreams of the country girl.

Task. Choose the proverb which fits the story the best:
1. Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow. (Не сули журавля в небе, дай синицу в руки.)
2. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. (Не ставьте всё на одну карту.)
3. Don’t cackle till your egg is laid. (Не говори гоп, пока не перепрыгнешь.)
4. Don’t count your chicks before they hatch. (Цыплят по осени считают.)

Enlarge your vocabulary.
So many eggs to roast.
• to have an egg on one’s face – to look silly;
• to lay an egg (Am.E) – to be unsuccessful at something, to fail;
• as sure as eggs is eggs (Br.E old-fashioned) – to tell someone that you are sure that something will happen;
• to egg on – to encourage someone to do something they should not do;
• good-egg (old-fashioned) – someone you can depend on to be honest and kind;
• egg-head – very intelligent, who only interests in theories and books; (Am.E) – a man who has no hair;
• Columbus’s egg – an unexpectedly simple solution of a seemingly insoluble problem (Колумбово яйцо);
• nest egg – the money you have saved to use for something special in the future.

Puzzle it out.
• the name of the famous British Egg, the character of the favourite “Mother Goose Rhyme” for children? (It’s Humpty-Dumpty.)
• when do blackbirds lay their eggs? (In March.)
• in how many days do eggs hatch? (In 26 days.)
• whose egg is the biggest? (An ostrich egg.)
• a Russian goldsmith and jeweller to the Russian imperial court whose gold-and-enamel Easter eggs are known all over the word. (Carl Peter Faberge.)