Lieldienas (Easter)

Latvian Easter eggs coloured with onion peel | latvianeats.com

Lieldienas (Easter) is a celebration of the arrival of spring and sun, the spring equinox. With the rise of Christianity, Lieldienas was celebrated on the day coinciding with Easter Sunday. As this day signified the start of the farming season, many traditions were be observed to bring good health, abundant harvest and prosperity.

Easter morning should start before sunrise to ensure alertness for the rest of the year. It should be followed with a wash in a spring that is flowing towards the sun for good health and a clear mind. Breakfast would be hard-boiled eggs with salt (so you don’t have to lie for the rest of the year), preceded by an egg fight. Whoever has the strongest egg, will live the longest.

How to dye Easter eggs

Egg dyeing is the most popular of Easter traditions in Latvia. Eggs are covered in onion peels with the addition of grass strands, yarn, blueberry jam, frozen blackberries, flowers, tree buds or leaves for an additional pattern. Each egg is then wrapped in a cloth or newspaper, secured with a yarn, placed in a large pot and boiled for 15 minutes. Boiled and cooled eggs are rubbed with a bit of butter to create a subtle shine that highlights the pattern created by onion peels; no two eggs are the same. Cooked eggs are used for egg fights and egg rolling games. You can follow this video on how to dye the eggs.

Easter eggs onion peel
Easter eggs coloured with onion peels | latvianeats.com

Easter games

Egg rolling is a tradition that my family started 10 or so years ago and, to some extent, I have taken with me to Australia. Each participant rolls an egg down a narrow wooden or metal through (we use a rain gutter) leaving the egg where it lands on the ground. If the egg does not touch any other eggs on the ground, the participant loses the rolled egg (by leaving it on the ground). If the rolling egg touches another egg on the ground, the participant can then claim both eggs as his by removing them from the ground. The best is to have 2-3 eggs per participant, taking turns in rolling. The winner is the participant with the most eggs.

Another popular tradition is building a large swing and swinging as high as possible. There are several reasons offered, e.g., to bring good health to cattle, to ward off evil spirits or to deter mosquitoes.  Countless other customs address fertility, health and beauty, cattle rearing and crop farming.

Save

12 Comments

  1. Mark
    April 5, 2015

    Thank you for this lovely website. As i read thru the various Latvian dishes, it puts a smile on my face as i too am Latvian and have eaten 90% of these foods my whole life. I have a quick question though. In the Lieldienas section you have a beautiful photo of Easter eggs that are brown AND BLUE! The brown ones are similar to the ones I and most other Latvians make every year but i had never seen blue ones. They are beautiful! May i ask how you did it? You mentioned blueberry jam but how did u use it? What i am most surprised by is the fact that the blue and brown stayed seperate. I would have thought that blueberry jam would make all of the water blue and mixed with brown would result in a drab grayish color. Did u put the jam on the eggs along with the onion skins before wrapping them in the cloth? Seems like bleeding would still happen… Or did u do something with the jam AFTER you cooked the eggs? Its a mystery to me but one that i would love to have solved as i am just about to start my egg coloring.(Easter is tomorrow!) Any info would be greatly appreciated! Mīļš paldies un Priecīgas Lieldienas!

    Reply
    1. Liva
      April 5, 2015

      To get the blue on the eggs put a little bit of blueberry or bilberry jam on the egg (not covering the whole egg), then add some onion peel, wrap tightly in a cotton cloth and secure with a yarn. I suppose it would work also with fresh berries, but they are not in the season yet. It works best with white eggs.
      Thank you for the kind words, much more to come content wise, time is the only constraint!

      Reply
  2. Anonymous
    March 11, 2016

    Another way to get blue colored eggs – wrap the egg in shredded red cabbage leaves. Boil the eggs for 12 minutes and then plunge into ice water. Return the eggs to the pan of cabbage water to soak overnight. Unwrap 6-8 hours later.

    Reply
  3. ilze
    March 11, 2016

    Another way to get blue colored eggs – wrap the egg in shredded red cabbage leaves. Boil the eggs for 12 minutes and then plunge into ice water. Return the eggs to the pan of cabbage water to soak overnight. Unwrap 6-8 hours later.

    Reply
  4. Imants M, Svans
    March 12, 2016

    How do you get the blue color eggs?

    Reply
    1. Liva
      March 12, 2016

      To get the blue on the eggs put a little bit of blueberry or bilberry jam on the egg (not covering the whole egg), then add some onion peel, wrap tightly in a cotton cloth and secure with a yarn. I suppose it would work also with fresh berries, but they are not in the season yet. It works best with white eggs.

      Reply
  5. Cindy Celins-Hutchinson
    May 28, 2017

    I would also like to thank you for creating this website. Both of my parents fled with their families during WWII. My Mom and her twin sister made these recipes often. They are gone, but the Latvian food traditions must live on! Paldies for taking me down memory lane.

    Reply
  6. Rita Moore
    June 19, 2017

    I remember my Omit making paska for Easter. Does anyone have a recipe for it? I remember she shaped it like a bunny using slivered almonds to decorate the bunny.

    Reply
  7. […] Some ideas how to use your Easter eggs are in this article. […]

    Reply
  8. Rebecca Cuningham
    November 1, 2019

    We’ve begun using natural dyes for our Easter Eggs. I love the color combinations you’ve created. Thanks for the instructions!

    Reply
  9. […] round dairy dishes would be served on Palm Sunday (Pūpolsvētdiena) and Easter (Lieldienas). You could make cottage cheese pancakes, or go up a step and make a cottage cheese and semolina […]

    Reply
  10. […] look, but maybe next year. According to this Lithuanian Easter website and this Latvian Easter website, they both do an egg-rolling ramp game at Easter. My kids had a blast and I think that tradition is […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Cindy Celins-Hutchinson Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.