PROVIDENCE – Parishioners of all ages who gathered for Palm Sunday Mass at St. Casimir Church were invited to take part in a time-honored Lithuanian tradition of creating colorfully decorated eggs – known as “marguciai.” People of Lithuanian descent across the globe carry on the popular longstanding tradition of giving the colored eggs as Easter gifts.
Click here to view more photos. Marguciai are similar to Easter eggs, and are painted in many different colors, but they differ in that they incorporate religious symbols into their designs.
Marcy Couitt, a former St. Casimir parishioner who now lives in Berkley, Mass., recently returned to the parish to keep the ancient custom alive by offering a marguciai workshop for several generations of descendants of the Lithuanian immigrants who once settled in the Smith Hill neighborhood. Couitt’s goal is to preserve the Baltic country’s traditions and rich legacy, while also teaching younger generations about the interesting history of their ancestral homeland.
The workshop was sponsored by the Knights of Lithuania, a parish group whose motto is “For God and Country.” The group annually decorates a Christmas tree at the Statehouse with Lithuanian-themed ornaments and holds several events throughout the year to promote Lithuanian culture.
Father Dean P. Perri, administrator of St. Casimir Church, said the Lithuanians’ culture reflects their love of God and the Blessed Mary.
“Their faith is part of their culture,” he observed.
Couitt emphasized the importance for younger Lithuanians to have an appreciation for their rich heritage.
“It’s nice to pass the tradition and see how vibrant it is,” Couitt said, adding that parishioners enjoy creating the colorful Easter eggs and straw Christmas decorations that are also popular in Lithuania.
According to Couitt, Lithuania was controlled by the Soviet Union for almost 50 years, before regaining its sovereignty in the 1990s. Artists and Christian families, fearful of openly expressing their faith incorporated Christian symbols associated with Easter such as crosses, palm branches, and wheat stalks into secular designs including birds and flowers to pass their strong faith to others.
“It was a teachable moment,” Couitt emphasized. She added that one of the most popular marguciai designs is the starburst that represents Jesus rising from the tomb to new life on Easter morning.
Aldona Kairys, who emigrated from Lithuania to the United States in 1948, noted that Lithuania was once a pagan country.
“Once converted, the faith just came,” she said, noting that Easter and Christmas are two of the most celebrated holidays in her homeland.
According to Couitt, there are two basic methods used to decorate the hard-boiled Easter eggs. The first technique is to completely color the egg with dye and then etch a design with an X-acto knife or sharp pin. A second way, imitating a Javanese batik process, is to create a design on the egg using a sharp pen dipped in beeswax, coloring the egg and then gently removing the wax to reveal a design in the color of the eggshell. By using brightly hued dyes, the eggs are pink, lime, lemon, lavender, orange and light blue and are often used to create festive Easter centerpieces.
The artisan adds that homemade natural dyes were used in Lithuania until commercial dyes became available. Before the invention of colored dyes in the 20th centuries, families in the Baltic agricultural country boiled the eggs in water containing onionskins, dried birch leaves or bark from various indigenous trees.
“Scratching onion-skin eggs dyed eggs is a Lithuanian folk-art that reflects a people with great sensitivity for beauty and national pride using materials commonly available to every household,” Couitt said. “National boundaries do not determine crafts, so the art of scratch-carving on eggs spread throughout Northern Europe.”
Aleksus Jagminas of East Greenwich, a freshman at Bishop Hendricken High School, Warwick, has been creating marguciai since he was a small boy.
“It’s a way to connect with our culture and to keep the Lithuanian culture alive in Rhode Island,” he said.
