PISANKI - POLISH EASTER EGGS

 

When we were boys, we colored Easter eggs with our parents. We usually did this on the afternoon or evening of Good Friday. When I travelled to Poland 40 years ago, I bought some wooden Easter eggs. The Poles call these pisanki. It comes from the Polish word pisać, which means “to write.” Decorating Easter eggs originated in Poland before Easter itself. After the cold winter, people decorated chicken eggs as a symbol to celebrate spring. Today, everybody in Eastern Europe has these at Easter. If you want to learn how to make these, you can find all kinds of websites. Even Martha Stewart has a website on Easter eggs!

I tell you this because new life is why we celebrate Easter. Because of the Fall – Adam and Eve’s original sin – we cannot stop sinning. Martin Luther said that we will stop sinning when we stop breathing.

Because Jesus suffered and died on the cross, and rose from the dead on the Third Day, that is, Sunday, we are saved by his obedience to his Father and his love for us. Because of what Jesus did for us, we celebrate Easter not only by coloring and eating eggs, but also by eating other foods.

My wife is making a ham and potatoes au gratin for dinner. Some other foods that people love to eat on Easter are lamb, asparagus, carrots, special breads, cakes, pies and cookies. We eat so much on Easter because during Lent, we fasted. You probably remember me talking about that on Ash Wednesday. So, today, I want you go home, eat a feast, and thank God for sending us his Son to save us from our sins.

Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.