Easter Egg Tapping

Many years ago, after relating stories of past holidays and family gatherings, my then young daughter astutely observed, "Traditions ain't what they used to be."  One of the tales told involved Easter and the simple joy accompanying of eating an hard-boiled egg.

Today, in an age of Easter baskets brimming with chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and candy bars, it is difficult to believe there once was a time when children gleefully devoured colored eggs with a sprinkle of salt.  Yet, like Camelot, there was such a time.

Contemporary Easter basket

Perhaps it wasn't just the hard-boiled egg that brought such joy, but rather the ritual that accompanied it.  We called it bitki.  Others called it tapping Easter eggs.

Russian Easter eggs

Bilki is a simple sport.  All that is required is two participants and a pair of uncracked Easter eggs.  The object is to crack your opponents egg.  The two challengers smack the rounded ends of their eggs against each other until one shell shatters.  The whole egg is declared winner and the owner takes possession of the loser's egg and eats it.  It is also believed the winner obtains a year's worth of luck from the vanquished.

In Ikons: Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker, I introduced bilki in a scene between Akulina and her father Boris.  Akulina was despondent after Massey emigrates to America and Boris tried to cheer her up with a quick game of bilki.  For the hard-boiled Boris, it was a subtle way to show his love.

* * *

"Come, good luck for the year.  Even the Tsar can use luck, so they say."

Akulina shook her head and continued to attend to Stepha.

Boris walked over to her side, slowly put his arm around her, and said softly, "For Massey?  Bring him some luck."  Gently he led her to the table.

She picked an egg at random and sat opposite her father.  They brought the eggs together, hers cracking the rounded end of Boris's egg, just off the center.

"Someone else gets all my good luck for the year," exclaimed Boris in mock surprise.  "It's all in the wrist," he said softly to himself.

* * *

A winner and loser. 
"© Superbass / CC-BY-SA-3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)"

Bilki appeared in my third novel, Slogans: Our Children, Our Future.  Following the Communist takeover of Unkurda, the People's Committee did all in their power to stamp out religion.  I wrote this scene to illustrate while religious ceremonies may have gone into hiding, some secular based Easter customs were practiced as a sign of open defiance.

* * * 

Of all the traditions, only the Easter egg continued.  The colorfully decorated orbs withstood the onslaught of freethinking and still filled wicker baskets as in past.  Along with the eggs remained the tradition of bitki.  The sound of butting eggs and laughter was heard for several days following the feast, for bitki was a game without real losers.  Even if your opponent shattered your egg with his, you still could eat the vanquished foe with a sprinkle of salt and wash it down with honey ladened chi

* * *

We still dye eggs during Easter week, but not on the past scale.  The few we do are later chopped up for egg salad sandwiches. I can't remember the last time we tapped them. 

The joy of decorating eggs still remains

Perhaps the downfall of bilki was the advent of the plastic egg.  Those ubiquitous candy-filled orbs are now the target of egg hunts.  As the children grew older, money replaced candy and led to furious competition.  Unfortunately, plastic eggs do not inspire tapping contests.  My daughter was correct, traditions ain't what they used to be.

It's hard to tap plastic eggs