Easter will be here soon. It really annoys me that some calendars are so “politically correct” now that they don’t even mention religious holidays such as Easter.  This year Western Easter [Protestants and Roman Catholics] is on March 31, whereas Orthodox Easter is on May 5.

For Orthodox Christians Easter is the most important holiday of the year. I have visited Romania, Bulgaria, [Russia, Greece-many years ago]. Both the Romanians and the Bulgarians seem to be very religious and have highly decorated churches. Romanians have a tradition of making reverse painting on glass icons.  This was started in a monastery in Nicula, Transylvania during  the 17th century.  Traditionally, many icons were painted during the winter.

I bought a number of these icons in Romania and have two which would be particularly suitable for Easter. Item #196 below is a beautiful icon of the Virgin Mary with the crusifixion in the bottom right hand corner. The gold in the painting seems to be gold leaf rather than gold paint.

Item # 127 is an icon of the crucifixion. Again the gold seems to be gold leaf rather than gold paint.

Now for something a little more secular. #562,563,564 are lovely small cloisonne eggs from China which can make  fairly sophisticated Easter gifts or be used for Easter decorations.  Also, I have similar larger eggs which are not on the website.

A hand carved wooden rooster from Bali, #141 is an item that could be used as an Easter decoration, too.

One last suggestion this time around is  a delicate quite beautiful metal bird from Laos. #143

I am intending to put up pictures of some of my other Easter items soon. -Hopefully before our Easter, but definitely before Orthodox Easter