What was in 1 Faberge Easter egg. What was inside the first Easter egg made by Carl Faberge

Napoleonic. 1912. On the centenary of the war with Napoleon. Gift to Maria Feodorovna. Surprise - a screen with six miniatures depicting representatives of the regiments whose honorary colonel was the empress .

Faberge Easter eggs are rightfully considered the symbol of the era and the disappeared Russian Empire, its wealth and prosperity, the pinnacle of Russian jewelry craftsmanship. It was they who made the name of the Russian jeweler famous all over the world, a name that is breathed in today in Europe and America.

Faberge eggs are a miracle not only of jewelry craftsmanship, but also of mechanics: each egg has its own surprise. They were either watches, or music boxes, or small trains that traveled several meters, or a peacock imitating the gait of a real bird, or walking Moors, or miniature paintings.

The history of the creation of the imperial collection of Easter eggs, their loss, acquisition, and then - numerous forgeries has overgrown with legends, secrets, crime stories and names, more and more European and American. Volumes of scientific and art history research and dozens of crime novels and detective stories have been written about these miracle eggs for millionaires.

But today even the Faberge brand has long ceased to belong to Russia, and all attempts by Viktor Vekselberg to redeem it were in vain. The famous Russian jeweler with German-French-Danish roots, Karl Faberge, for thirty-two years (1885-1917) made famous Easter eggs for the Romanov imperial family - one a year, and besides them also for other wealthy private customers.

The beginning of the famous jewelry dynasty is rooted in France (hence the French surname), to the distant Huguenot ancestors. The very first Easter egg (1885) was made by Carl Faberge not at all for Easter (albeit in the form of an egg), but for the twentieth anniversary of the engagement in 1866 of Alexander III to the daughter of the Danish king Maria Dagmar, who was baptized into Orthodoxy named Maria Feodorovna.

Hen. 1885. Gift to Maria Feodorovna. Surprise - a chicken with a crown and a ring. The crown is lost

The egg was modeled on an 18th century Easter gift in the form of a simple chicken egg, inside which there was a surprise: a chicken, in which there was a crown, and in the crown - a ring. In a word, a surprise gift in the form of a Russian nesting doll. One of these 18th century eggs can still be seen today at Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen.

The eggs turned into festive Easter eggs with the light hand of Empress Dagmar, who was so delighted with the gift that she ordered Carl Faberge to make one Easter egg every year, with a prerequisite that none of them would repeat the previous ones and would definitely have a surprise.

This was the beginning of the imperial tradition, which existed until the abdication of Nicholas II from the royal throne. For ten years, Alexander III ordered only one egg - for his wife, and after the death of the emperor, his son, Nicholas II, ordered two eggs: one for his mother - Maria Feodorovna, the widow of Alexander III, the second - for his wife, the current Empress Alexandra Feodorovna ...

Cherub and chariot. 1888. Gift to Maria Feodorovna. Surprise - in an egg - cherub with a clock

Maria Feodorovna received a total of thirty of the fifty-two imperial eggs, but she managed to bring only one to her native Denmark in 1919 - St. George's, the last one presented to her at Easter 1916. On it is the Order of St. George, and inside there is a surprise: a miniature portrait of Nicholas II. Twenty eggs were presented to Alexandra Feodorovna and the last two (by Easter 1917) were not finished.

The most valuable of the fifty-two Faberge eggs are considered the first ten times of Alexander III, and the most controversial and shrouded in secrets are the last two, which did not reach the addressees. All previous Easter eggs were handed over to the emperor - always on Good Friday - personally by the owner of the company Karl Gustavovich, accompanying the gift with an invoice for its value. Later, it was from these accounts that it was possible to establish how many Imperial Faberge Easter eggs were made.

George cross. 1916. Gift to Maria Feodorovna. Surprise in the egg - portrait of Nicholas II

The last Fabergé Easter eggs have an incredibly confusing story. The order for their manufacture for Easter seventeenth, as always, was received by the company a year in advance - in the spring of 1916 right after the delivery of the eggs at Easter 1916, but there is evidence from the chief artist of the company that the eggs were not finished. He wrote about this in 1922 about the "Constellation of the Tsarevich" egg, intended for Alexandra Fedorovna:

“… An egg of blue glass, on which the constellation of the day in which the heir was born was inlaid. The egg was supported by cupids of silver and clouds of brushed rock crystal. If I'm not mistaken, there was a watch with a rotating dial inside. The production of this egg was interrupted by the war. Cupids, clouds, the egg itself with inlays were ready and the pedestal was not finished ... ".

Constellation of the Tsarevich. 1917. Gift to Alexandra Feodorovna. The last egg. Unfinished. Surprise - a clock inside an egg

It was possible to establish how many royal eggs were made only in the early nineties, but the last "Constellation" egg of 1917, which was mentioned above, was accidentally discovered in the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow in 2001, disassembled.

Each Faberge Easter egg was filled with meaning, told about an event related to the history of Russia: the war of 1914, the journey of Tsarevich Nicholas to the Far East, the opening of the Transsib, the anniversary of the 1812 war, and so on. Unfortunately, a smaller part of this unique collection remains in Russia: ten out of fifty-two eggs are kept in the Armory, eleven in the Faberge Museum (St. Petersburg).

It was opened by Viktor Vekselberg specifically for the collection, which he managed to redeem in its entirety (without dividing it into separate piece auctions) in 2004. True, two of them have neither a precisely established year of creation, nor an exact addressee, and therefore experts doubt their belonging to the royal collection. One Easter egg ("Constellation of the Tsarevich") is in the Fersman Mineralogical Museum.

Birch. 1917. Gift to Maria Feodorovna. The last egg, unfinished. Surprise - a mechanical elephant made of precious materials. Not found

The rest, most of them, are in private collections, often unknown, or in museums in Europe and America. The location of six royal eggs is unknown, including three commissioned by Alexander III.

In a word, over the past hundred years, the unique collection was partly plundered during the revolution, partly in the nineties. Part of it was sold in Stalin's times for a song, and part of it disappeared completely without a trace.

In many respects, this happened because the Faberge Easter eggs were not of great value from the point of view of the Soviet government, which nationalized the property of the royal family. Alexei Maksimovich Gorky, for example, wrote that this is just well-processed silver.

In 1917, A.F. Kerensky ordered the chests with the property of the empresses to be transferred to Moscow and placed temporarily in the Armory, where they lay unopened for five years. In 1922, the sale of art treasures and national treasures of the country began. The royal Faberge eggs were also subject to sale.

But at that time the market turned out to be oversaturated, eggs went for next to nothing, after five years 24 eggs returned to their homeland, because there was no buyer for them. Three years later, in 1927, the People's Commissariat of Finance demanded eleven of the 24 eggs in order to try to sell them again. The delay in the implementation of this decision by the director of the Armory was perceived as open sabotage.

Then the most valuable eggs were sold, which were bought mainly by the Americans: Hammer, the wife of the American ambassador, the wife of General Motors and other millionaires. The next and final sale took place six years later, in 1933.

Then one egg from the imperial collection "Mosaic", presented at Easter 1914 to Alexandra Feodorovna, was acquired by the English queen Elizabeth II, in whose collection, consisting of three Faberge eggs, it is to this day.

Mosaic. 1914. Gift to Alexandra Feodorovna. Surprise - cameo with children's profiles.

The egg imitates cross-stitching and has a surprise - a cameo with the profiles of the children of the imperial family, adorned with diamonds, pearls and an imperial crown. For a long time, the disappeared last two eggs, which were being prepared for Easter 1917, remained unknown.

The renunciation took place, as you know, in March. Consequently, the making of the Easter Imperial Eggs was almost complete. Fortunately, we managed to find sketches of the last eggs, and recently found the eggs themselves. What was intended as a gift to Alexandra Fedorovna was found in the Mineralogical Museum, intended for Maria Fedorovna, made of Karelian birch, was also found in the same 2001.

It had as a surprise a little mechanical elephant, the symbol of the Danish kingdom. But the elephant made of diamonds, gold and silver disappeared without a trace. Only the winding key has survived from him. So the story of Faberge Easter eggs is not over yet and has not been finished yet. It is hoped that someday the blank spots in this semi-crime story will be filled in, and the missing eggs will be found.

Red Cross. 1915. Gift to Alexandra Feodorovna. Surprise - inside the egg there are miniatures with 5 portraits: in the form of sisters of mercy, two daughters, a sister, wife and cousin of Nicholas II

Tina Guy

Even today, Faberge is perhaps one of the most famous jewelry brands. And all thanks to the precious eggs that were produced by this jewelry house for the Russian imperial family. Today, these works of art are a huge rarity, shrouded in secrets, and their cost reaches tens of millions of dollars. In our review, little-known facts about the world's most famous eggs.

1. The first egg was made in 1885 by order of Alexander III

The tradition of painting Easter eggs has existed in Russia since ancient times. The imperial family also followed it. But in 1885, Tsar Alexander III, without suspecting it himself, somewhat transformed this tradition. Deciding to surprise his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna, he gave her a special gift - an egg with a secret.

It was a precious egg, covered with white enamel, across which there was a golden stripe. It opened, and inside was a golden "yolk". In it, in turn, sat a golden chicken, inside which was a ruby ​​crown and a pendant. The Empress was delighted with such a gift.

2. The first egg had a prototype

In fact, Faberge did not invent this Easter matryoshka himself. According to the idea of ​​Alexander III, the Easter egg with a secret was to become a free interpretation of an egg made at the beginning of the 18th century, 3 of which are known today.

They are located: in the Rosenborg castle (Copenhagen); in the Museum of Art History (Vienna) and in a private collection (previously - in the art gallery "Green Vault", Dresden). In all the aforementioned specimens of eggs, a chicken is hidden, opening which, you can find a crown, and in it - a ring. It is believed that the emperor wanted to please his spouse with a surprise that would remind her of a well-known product from the Danish royal treasury.

3. All Faberge eggs have a surprise

The Empress was so fascinated by the gift that Faberge, who made the egg, instantly turned into a court jeweler and received a life order. He had to make one egg every year. There was only one condition - the egg must contain some kind of surprise. The fact that it should be done in a single copy was not even discussed.

Since then, Alexander III presented his wife with a new precious egg for every Easter. This tradition was continued by the son of Alexander III, Nicholas II, who gave precious eggs to his mother and wife on Easter holidays.

Each Faberge egg contained a tiny miracle: a miniature replica of the royal crown, a ruby ​​pendant, a mechanical swan, an elephant, a gold mini replica of a palace, 11 tiny portraits on an easel, a model ship, an exact working replica of a royal carriage, etc.

4. The Bolsheviks underestimated Faberge eggs and thus saved them

After the October coup, the Bolsheviks, trying to replenish the treasury of "the world's first communist state", sold Russian art treasures. They plundered churches, sold canvases by old masters from the Hermitage Museum and took on crowns, diadems, necklaces and Faberge eggs that belonged to the Emperor's family.

In 1925, the catalog of the values ​​of the imperial court (crowns, wedding crowns, scepter, orb, diadems, necklaces and other jewelry, including the famous Faberge eggs) was sent to all foreign representatives in the USSR. Part of the Diamond Fund was sold to the English antiquarian Norman Weiss.

In 1928, seven Fabergé eggs of little value and 45 other items were withdrawn from the Diamond Fund.

However, it was thanks to this assessment, which was unflattering for the creator of jewelry masterpieces, that Faberge eggs were saved from being melted down.

Thus, one of the most incredible works of Faberge, the Peacock egg, has been preserved. Inside the masterpiece of crystal and gold was an enameled peacock. Moreover, this bird was mechanical - when it was removed from the golden branch, the peacock raised its tail like a real bird and could even walk.

5. The fate of several eggs is unknown

In total, Faberge made 52 eggs for the Russian imperial court, 19 others were made by orders of private individuals. After the 1917 revolution, many were lost. 62 eggs have survived to this day, 10 of which are in the Kremlin's collection, some belong to the Fabergé jewelry house, and the rest are in museums and private collections.

The discovery of several imperial eggs is not known for certain. For example, the fate of the travel bag, created in the Faberge workshop in 1889, is covered with mystery.

This egg was last seen in a London store in 1949. According to rumors, it was sold to an unknown person for $ 1250.

6. One of the imperial eggs was bought by a buyer of scrap precious metals for 8000 pounds

One of the lost imperial Easter eggs was found in a completely surprising way. This egg, which belonged to Empress Maria Feodorovna, and then disappeared without a trace for more than 90 years, was purchased at a flea market in the United States by a buyer of precious scrap.

This Faberge product was last seen in 1922 in Moscow. The egg, made of gold and decorated with diamonds and sapphires, 8.2 cm high, was confiscated by the Bolsheviks. His further fate remained unknown for a long time, until in 1964 a unique piece of jewelry art went under the hammer at a New York auction called "golden watch in the shape of an egg" - for $ 2,450.

An American who bought a golden egg for 8 thousand pounds ($ 14,000) could not know its true value. For several years he tried to sell the egg, keeping it in his kitchen. Tired of unsuccessful attempts, he tried to find out something about the manufacturer and typed in a search engine the name engraved on the built-in watch. So he came across an article by Kieran McCarthy, director of the Royal Wartski Jewelry House. He called McCarthy and then came to London with photographs of his purchase.

The expert immediately recognized on them one of the eggs created by a famous jeweler for members of the Russian imperial family.

"Probably, Indiana Jones experienced similar feelings when he found the lost ark," - this is how the head of the jewelry house described his emotions to journalists.

7. Queen Elizabeth II owns three imperial Faberge eggs

The British royal family has three Imperial Faberge Easter eggs: Colonnade, Basket of Flowers and Mosaic. The flower basket is the most famous masterpiece of this trio. The miniature bunch of flowers is incredibly realistic!

Eggs are one of the most ancient types of human food.

They are included in sacred symbolism, myths, tales and sayings of most peoples of the world and in many cultures are a symbol of life.

This is a valuable food product containing almost all, except for vitamin C, essential substances for a person: vitamins A, D, E, H, K, PP and group B, phosphorus, chlorine, sulfur, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, fluorine, manganese, iodine.

At the same time, it is also a low-calorie food: there are about 75 calories in one average copy. They ideally combine proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, while one piece can contain up to 14% of the daily protein intake.
Eggs are the only type of food that is assimilated by 97%, which is why (and also due to the richest composition) yolk is one of the first to be introduced into the composition of baby food.

How to know if an egg is fresh and why an egg floats in water; whether the chicken is breathing in the egg; what is the danger of raw eggs; at what temperature does Salmonella die; how to properly cook and store chicken eggs; is it possible to store eggs in the freezer; why there are two yolks in an egg, as well as other interesting facts about eggs.

1. What does a chicken egg consist of?
The formed egg consists of white, yolk, shell and shells. In a chicken egg, 10-12% of the mass is shell, 56-61% - protein and 27-32% - yolk. In the liquid content of eggs without shells, protein accounts for about 64%, and yolk - 36%.

2. What are eggshells made of?
According to studies by Hungarian doctors, it has been proven that the shell of eggs is 90% calcium carbonate (calcium carbonate). In addition, the shell also contains magnesium (0.55%), phosphorus (0.25%), silicon (0.12%), potassium (0.08%), sodium (0.03%), copper, iron, sulfur, fluorine, aluminum, manganese, zinc, molybdenum and many other elements (27 in total). Interestingly, the composition of eggshells is very similar to the composition of human bones and teeth.

Outside, the shell is covered with a layer of dried mucus - the shell membrane, which protects against moisture evaporation from the egg and the penetration of microorganisms. Inside there is a shell membrane that does not allow protein to pass through, delays the penetration of bacteria, but allows air, moisture and ultraviolet rays to pass through. And it is followed by an elastic protein film.

3. How does a chick breathe in an egg through the shell?
The egg breathes thanks to the pores in the shell. At first glance, the shell seems to be dense, but in fact it has a porous structure that is permeable to gases. If you look at the surface of the shell with a magnifying glass, you can see many small pores through which air flows for the chick. Oxygen enters the egg through the pores, and carbon dioxide and moisture are removed. The shell of a chicken egg has about 7,500 pores! At the blunt end of the egg, there are more pores and fewer at the sharp end.

4. What is the thickness of the chicken egg shell?
The thickness of the shell of chicken eggs ranges from 0.3 to 0.4 mm, and it is not the same over the entire surface of the egg. At the sharp end of the egg, the shell is slightly thicker than at the blunt end. It is worth noting that the eggs of the same bird can have different shell thicknesses. The shell is thicker at the beginning of lay, usually in winter, and thinner from March to September. One of the reasons for the decrease in shell strength is the depletion of calcium reserves in the bird's body by the end of the laying season.

5. What determines the color of the eggshell?
The color of the eggshell depends on the breed of the laying hen. Interestingly, in most cases, chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs, and chickens with red ears lay brown eggs.

6. Which eggs are better - white or brown?
This question interests many housewives. In fact, there is no difference between brown and white eggs. The shell color of chicken eggs does not affect the nutritional value of the egg, its taste and quality. It also has nothing to do with the freshness of the eggs. However, it should be noted that brown eggs have thicker shells, but they are more likely to show blood stains. Due to their stronger shell, brown eggs last a little longer and are easier to transport without damage. Therefore, they are appreciated by poultry farmers.

7. How to distinguish fresh from stale eggs?
You need to put the egg in the water. If it is fresh, it will lie flat on the bottom of the dish. If the egg is more than one week old, then its blunt end will pop up. An egg hanging vertically in water is 2-3 weeks old, and an egg that has emerged is 6-7 weeks old.

8. Why do stale eggs float?
The buoyancy of an egg depends on its freshness. The fact is that at the blunt end of the egg, an air chamber (puga) is gradually formed between the sub-membrane and albuminous membranes. During storage, moisture evaporates from the egg through the pores, increasing the air space. Therefore, the longer the egg is stored, the more the size of the air chamber increases. That is why when buying eggs you should choose eggs with a matte surface, and not with a shiny one - this indicates the degree of their freshness. If the eggs are large but light, then they have a large air chamber and are approaching the end of their shelf life. You can shake the egg to determine the freshness of an egg in a store. If the contents dangle from side to side, such an egg is already spoiled and cannot be bought.

9. Why is it sometimes difficult to peel eggs?
It turns out that this depends on the freshness of the eggs. The contents of recently laid eggs adhere more tightly to the shell film, making fresh eggs harder to clean. And if they lie in the refrigerator for a week or two, then after boiling they can be cleaned easier and faster.

10. Why do hard-boiled eggs sometimes have a gray-green yolk?
This happens if, as a rule, a not very fresh egg is boiled for too long or if it is not cooled in time after boiling. In overcooked eggs, the yolk shell becomes greenish. This is due to the reaction of iron and sulfur, which are contained in eggs. When eggs are heated, sulfur from the protein comes into contact with iron from the yolk and iron sulfide is formed at the junction between them, due to which a gray-green color appears around the yolk. The older the eggs are, the faster this happens. Long boiling times and high temperatures will also speed up this reaction.

11. Can you eat eggs with green yolks?
Yes, these eggs are quite edible. The greenish color on the yolk shell does not affect the taste of the egg and does not mean that it is spoiled. Overcooked eggs, however, have a deterioration in protein quality, so do not boil them for more than 10 minutes. To avoid turning the yolk green, use fresher eggs and refrigerate immediately after boiling.

12. Why are there blood stains in chicken eggs?
Sometimes small specks of blood can be seen in the eggs. They appear when the blood vessels of the laying hen burst and blood gets onto the yolk during separation from the ovary. Blood stains are more common in brown eggs. These blood inclusions should not be confused with the fetus. It happens that eggs have a blood ring on the yolk. This means that the embryo began to develop in the egg and the circulatory system of the chicken was formed (if the egg was stored at a high temperature), but the embryo died at an early stage of development.

13. Is it okay to eat eggs with blood stains?
Yes, these eggs are quite suitable for consumption. The droplets of blood in the egg do not pose a health hazard and do not affect the taste in any way. But the red spots on the surface of the yolk look unappetizing, so it is better to remove them with the tip of a knife before cooking. However, eggs with a blood ring, in which the embryo has already begun to form, cannot be consumed in any form.

14. In which country is the most common egg consumption?
Mexico ranks first in the world in terms of egg consumption per capita. According to Mexican experts, each inhabitant of the country eats 21.9 kg of eggs per year, which is an average of one and a half eggs per day. Mexicans eat more eggs every day than any other country. Previously, Japan was considered the world leader in egg consumption per capita. Every inhabitant of this country eats 320 eggs annually, that is, approximately one egg a day.

15. Why is the yolk kept in one position in the middle of the egg?
The white of a chicken egg consists of three layers: the outer and inner layers are liquid, and the middle layer is denser. The white around the yolk is denser than under the shell. In this layer, which is located around the yolk, elastic twisted cords are formed on both sides of the yolk between the blunt and sharp ends of the egg. It is these protein cords, the so-called grains or chalases (Chalazae), that hold the yolk in the center of the egg, but do not prevent it from turning around its axis. Chalases are formed from dense protein and can be seen on an egg poured into a saucer. Their ends float freely in the egg white - the curl on the blunt side of the egg floats in the surrounding layer of thinner protein, and the curl on the sharp side of the egg penetrates from the denser middle layer of the egg.

16. Why is protein sometimes opaque?
The cloudy white color of the protein is due to the presence of a large amount of carbon dioxide CO2 in the egg. Cloudy white is a sign of egg freshness, as carbon dioxide has not yet escaped from it. In old eggs, this element evaporates through the pores of the shell.

17. What are the yellow and greenish crystals in the egg yolk?
This is riboflavin (lactoflavin or vitamin B2) - one of the most important vitamins. Riboflavin is a yellow crystal, poorly soluble in water. Egg yolk is one of the food sources of riboflavin. 100 grams of eggs contain 0.3-0.8 mg of riboflavin (vitamin B2).

18. Can I eat raw eggs?
No, raw eggs should not be eaten, much less given to children. They can contain the causative agents of many diseases, for example, the salmonella bacteria, which cause food poisoning in humans, and sometimes severe forms of salmonellosis with complications. Raw or undercooked eggs, and meals with them (homemade mayonnaise, pudding, some sauces and creams, egg shakes) are potential sources of infection. Eating soft-boiled eggs or insufficiently fried fried eggs with liquid yolk can lead to unpleasant consequences. But hard-boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, or well-fried fried eggs will not cause salmonellosis or food poisoning. Bacteria can be found both on the shell and inside the egg, so it's important to cook it properly. Heat treatment kills germs. It should be noted that annually in large countries, more than 400,000 people become victims of egg poisoning, of which about 200 cases are fatal. In addition, raw eggs do not benefit the body, since they are much less digestible than boiled ones.

The egg is a sterile product until it is laid. And yet, just a few seconds after demolition, having such an impressive shell protection, its contents are affected by environmental microorganisms.
What's going on with him?
To begin with, we note that when laid, the egg has a body temperature of the laying hen - 41-42 ° C. Once in the external environment, it cools down to the ambient temperature within two hours, while reducing in volume. Through numerous tiny pores, of which there are more at the blunt end of the egg, due to the difference in osmotic pressure, air is drawn into the egg. Together with the contents, the tunica albuginea also contracts, due to which a stratification is formed between the latter and the shell membranes and an air chamber is created - a pug.
Together with air, household and pathogenic (pathogenic) microflora penetrates into the egg. Here she finds a fertile environment for her development and dissemination.
So the cleanliness of raw eggs is directly related to cleanliness and adequate air exchange in the house and nests.

20. What are the signs of food poisoning?
The main symptoms of foodborne toxicity are abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, unpleasant taste in the mouth, headache and dizziness, often fever, severe weakness, and in severe cases, loss of consciousness. In case of acute poisoning, after 1-2 hours the temperature rises, severe vomiting and loose stools, dizziness and weakness appear, the pulse becomes very rapid, the skin of the face turns white, the color of the lips changes, and with botulism, suffocation and respiratory arrest may occur. Therefore, when such symptoms appear, you must immediately call an ambulance.

21. How to avoid food poisoning when eating eggs?
When buying eggs, check the expiration date. It is better to buy eggs in the store - there is usually a date stamped on the shell. Make sure the eggs are not cracked or broken - they are best avoided. If the egg turns out to be stale or has an unpleasant odor, it must be discarded immediately and under no circumstances should it be consumed or given to animals, otherwise you can get severe poisoning. Fresher eggs are less likely to breed Salmonella. A natural defense mechanism inhibits their growth in eggs for 20 days. It is better not to take risks and not drink raw eggs, do not cook soft-boiled eggs or fried eggs. Recipes using raw eggs should be avoided.

Bacteria can be found both inside the eggs and on the shell, therefore, before cooking, the eggs must be thoroughly washed with hot water (temperature 80 ° C) for at least 7 seconds. The fact is that Salmonella bacteria can enter the egg from the surface of the eggshell when it breaks. In addition, bacteria very easily spread to hands, dishes, tables, other foods and objects, so be sure to wash your hands before and after touching the eggs, and after cooking, wash everything that touches the eggs. Be sure to wash your hands after breaking a raw egg for cooking. When cooking, never place raw food and then cooked food on the same plate. Even properly prepared food can be contaminated with bacteria if drops or small particles of raw food accidentally enter it. Make sure the scrambled eggs or scrambled eggs are well done and do not remain soggy. Boil well or fry semi-finished products (dumplings, cutlets and others). Cooking food until cooked is the only way to kill potentially harmful bacteria and avoid severe food poisoning.

22. What is the most famous bacteria in eggs?
It is salmonella that lives in poultry eggs, meat, milk and dairy products. Salmonellosis (or paratyphoid fever) is an acute intestinal disease caused by various types of Salmonella, a very common form of food poisoning. The main route of salmonella infection is through food. These bacteria multiply rapidly in food (especially when warm), but do not change their taste or appearance. Salmonella accumulate in animal products, tolerate drying, freezing well, and survive in water for up to 2 months. They are resistant to smoking, salting, marinades, but quickly deteriorate when boiled. The incubation period lasts from 2-6 hours to 2-3 days. Salmonellosis is characterized by damage to the gastrointestinal tract and the development of intoxication and is accompanied by diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, headache, malaise, and fever. In this case, you should immediately consult a doctor. Salmonella enteritidis is the most common bacterium in many countries.

23. How many minutes do you need to cook the eggs?
Salmonella is very resistant and die only after prolonged heat treatment. They reproduce at temperatures from +7 to + 45 ° С, and the best temperature for them is + 35-37 ° С. At temperatures below + 5 ° C, the growth of Salmonella stops. At + 70-75 ° C, salmonella die within 5-10 minutes, and instantly when boiled. Therefore, only hard-boiled eggs can be completely safe. Eggs should be boiled for 8-10 minutes from the moment the water boils, and fried eggs or omelette until dry.

24. At what temperature do egg white and yolk harden?
The protein thickens at a temperature of + 60 ° C and hardens at + 65 ° C. The yolk begins to thicken at + 65 ° C and becomes hard at + 73 ° C.

25. At what temperature should you cook and store dishes containing eggs?
When cooking, dishes containing eggs must be heated to a temperature of at least + 70 ° C in order to kill bacteria. It is also necessary to reheat food that has been stored for some time to a temperature not lower than + 70 ° C. Food should be stored at temperatures above + 60 ° C or below + 10 ° C. Cooked food should not be stored at room temperature. At + 20-40 ° С every 20 minutes the number of bacteria doubles and the risk of poisoning increases. A favorable environment for the reproduction of microbes is warm and humid. And the cold stops their growth. Therefore, after eating, the remaining food should be immediately put into the refrigerator.

26. How to store chicken eggs correctly?
Eggs should be placed in the refrigerator immediately after purchasing. It is recommended to store eggs in the coldest place of the refrigerator (closer to the back wall) separately from other products and in special packaging. Although most refrigerators have a dedicated egg compartment on the door, it is wrong to store eggs in the refrigerator door. This is the warmest place, and the refrigerator is often opened and the eggs are exposed to frequent temperature fluctuations.

27. Why is it better to store eggs in a package?
Eggshells have thousands of pores through which odors and bacteria can penetrate. Therefore, eggs should be kept in special trays and away from foods with a strong smell, so they stay fresh longer. In addition, storage in egg trays will prevent the spread of bacteria from eggs to neighboring foods.

28. What is the best way to store eggs - sharp or blunt end down?
Eggs are best placed with the pointed end down so that the yolks are centered. In this position, the eggs will be able to "breathe" and maintain their freshness longer, since there are more pores at the blunt end through which oxygen enters the egg and carbon dioxide escapes. In addition, there is an air space at the blunt end of the egg, which can contain bacteria, and when turned over to the blunt end, they float up and enter the egg.

29. Can eggs be stored in the freezer?
No, you shouldn't store eggs in the freezer - they will freeze there. The ideal temperature for storing eggs is + 4 ° C.

30. How long do eggs keep in the refrigerator?
Fresh eggs are stored in the refrigerator for 4-5 weeks from the date of production. It is not recommended to store eggs for more than 6 weeks, even in the refrigerator. Eggs are stored for a rather long time due to the fact that there is a protective film on their surface. Therefore, it is advisable to wash them immediately before cooking.

31. How long can boiled eggs be stored?
In-shell hard-boiled eggs can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 7 days, but it is best to eat them within 3 days. Boiling destroys the protective film on the shell, which helps the egg to keep longer. Dishes with eggs must be kept in the refrigerator. Egg salads are stored for 3-4 days, stuffed eggs - 2-3 days.

32. Can eggs be stored at room temperature?
You can, but better not. Eggs spoil very quickly without a refrigerator, even in one day at room temperature they lose their freshness. One day of keeping eggs at room temperature equals one week of refrigeration.

33. How much does one chicken egg weigh?
Egg weight ranges from 35 to 75 grams. The average weight of a chicken egg is 50-55 grams. This means that a dozen medium eggs can weigh 500-550 grams, and a kilogram will be about 20 eggs.

34. How much do egg white and yolk weigh separately?
The weight of the yolk is about 1/3 of the weight of the whole egg, and the weight of the protein is 2/3 of the weight of the egg. That is, on an average egg, the yolk weighs 17 grams, and the egg white weighs 34 grams. And in one kilogram there will be 59 yolks or 30 whites.

35. What determines the color of the yolk?
The color of the egg yolk - light yellow or bright orange - depends on the diet of the chicken. The carotenoids in chicken feed give the yolk a yellow color. Carotenoids are naturally occurring natural pigments of yellow, orange or red color. They give color to many plants, including vegetables and fruits. The more the chicken eats feed containing carotenoids (corn, alfalfa, grass meal), the brighter the yolk color is. However, not all carotenoids give the yolk color. For example, canthaxanthin and lutein impart a golden yellow color to the yolk, while beta-carotene does not affect color. It should be noted that the color of the yolk does not affect the quality, nutritional value and taste of the egg.

36. What does the marking on the eggs mean?
Every egg produced in a poultry farm and sold in a store must be labeled. Eggs are divided into dietary and table eggs. Eggs are considered dietary for the first 7 days after they are laid. Therefore, it is important to look at the date of manufacture. These eggs are suitable for dietary and baby food. Diet eggs after 7 days of storage are considered table eggs.

The first mark of the marking indicates the permissible shelf life:
- The letter "D" means a dietary egg, which is realized within 7 days.
- The letter "C" means a table egg, such eggs are sold within 25 days.

These periods are valid provided that the eggs are stored at temperatures between 0 ° C and + 20 ° C.

The second character in the marking indicates the category of the egg, depending on its weight:
- "B" the highest category - 75 grams or more.
- "O" selected egg - from 65 to 74.9 grams.
- "1" first category - from 55 to 64.9 grams.
- "2" second category - from 45 to 54.9 grams.
- "3" third category - from 35 to 44.9 grams.

If eggs are sold without any designation at all, you should not risk your health and buy them. Eggs of different categories differ only in weight, and their shell color may be different. In addition, some eggs come with two yolks.

37. What determines the size of a chicken egg?
The weight and size of the eggs depend on various factors. The main one is the age of the laying hen. Young chickens are more likely to lay small eggs, while older chickens lay larger eggs. At first, the weight of eggs can be 40-50 grams, and by the age of the chicken it increases to 57-65 grams. Egg size also depends on the breed and weight of the laying hen. Underweight chickens lay small eggs. Housing conditions, bird feeding, climate, season of the year and time of day for laying also affect egg size. For example, in warm weather, chickens eat less, which often leads to a decrease in egg size. Although sometimes young hens also lay large eggs or even eggs with two yolks. And it happens that more yolks are found in the egg!

38. Why do hens lay two-yolk eggs?
According to experts, eggs with two yolks are an anomaly. Two-yolk eggs are produced when two cells mature at the same time and pass through the hen's reproductive system together. Usually such eggs are laid either by young laying hens, which have not yet established reproductive cycles, or by mature birds (about one year old). The largest number of two-yolk eggs is laid by hens in the first weeks of laying. The ability of hens to lay two-yolk eggs can be inherited. However, sometimes eggs with two yolks can be a sign of bird illness. If hens have problems with ovulation, inflammation of the oviduct, then they can lay eggs with two yolks, no yolk, too small or with different defects. Diseases of the oviduct in chickens can occur due to a violation of the conditions of feeding and keeping hens, dampness and dirt in the room.

Eggs with two yolks are quite rare in nature and are not viable. They never hatch chickens. Previously, these eggs were considered non-standard and processed into egg powder. But then they began to be in demand among buyers, because they taste no different from ordinary ones, and weigh more - 70-80 grams (while selected eggs weigh 65-75 grams). Therefore, now in poultry farms, chickens are specially raised that lay eggs with two yolks. Eggs with two yolks are completely harmless and suitable for consumption.

39. How many eggs does a hen lay per year?
In one year, a laying hen lays about 220-250 eggs, and some hens lay up to 300 eggs or even more. It takes a hen approximately 24-26 hours to lay an egg. Half an hour after the hen has laid an egg, a new egg begins to form in her body. It has been noticed that white chickens lay an average of 45 eggs per year than red or dark ones.

40. What determines the egg production of chickens?
The number of eggs obtained from a chicken for a certain period of time, that is, egg production, depends on the breed of the chicken, its age, keeping conditions, nutrition, health of the bird, and also on hereditary properties and individual characteristics. For example, chickens of egg breeds lay 10-12% more eggs than meat and egg chickens and almost twice as many as chickens of meat breeds. Chickens of egg breeds begin to lay their first eggs at the age of 5-6 months. Chickens are capable of laying eggs for about 10 years. But increased egg production is observed in the first year of laying, during which hens can lay 250-300 eggs. As the bird ages, egg production decreases by 10-15% per year compared to the first year of laying. Therefore, it is economically profitable to use chickens on industrial farms only during the first year of laying, and in breeding farms - 2-3 years. Moreover, for the second or third year, only the best layers are left. Typically, a breeding flock consists of 55-60% young hens, 30-35% 2-year-olds and 10% 3-year-olds. Roosters are used up to 2 years, the most valuable - up to 3 years.

41. What does the egg white consist of?
An egg block consists of water (85%), proteins (12-13%), carbohydrates (0.7%), fats (0.3%), glucose, various enzymes, vitamins of group B. The protein contains half of the protein contained in the egg. It contains all the amino acids necessary for building protein in the human body, as well as lysozyme, a protein substance that kills and dissolves microorganisms, including putrefactive ones. But the protective properties of the protein decrease with long-term storage. The white is liquid near the shell and thicker around the yolk. Egg white is the most easily digestible and complete among the proteins found in food. It is considered a reference protein and other proteins are evaluated against it. Egg white contains approximately 17 calories.

42. What does the egg yolk consist of?
Egg yolk consists of water (50%), fat (over 30%), proteins (16%), carbohydrates (0.2%), cholesterol and minerals. However, eggs are not a fatty product, since the yolk contains more harmless unsaturated fat (70-75%), and saturated fat - about 28%. Egg yolk is rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, D, E, PP and others, and also contains phosphorus, potassium, calcium, chlorine, sulfur, iron, manganese, iodine, copper, cobalt. In addition, egg yolk contains lecithin, which is involved in metabolism and is necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system. The yolk is covered on the outside with a thin transparent membrane and consists of alternating concentric dark and light layers. The yolk contains about 60 calories, which is three times more than the protein.

43. What is the use of chicken eggs?
Eggs contain all the nutrients required for the normal functioning of the human body. It is an indispensable food product that prepares quickly and is inexpensive. Eggs perfectly combine proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Eggs are a valuable source of protein. One egg contains 12-14% of the RDA for an adult. The average chicken egg contains approximately 6.5 grams of protein (protein), as well as 5.8 grams of easily digestible fats, rich in phospholipids, which are involved in the transport of fats in the body, are included in all cell membranes. Proteins and fats of chicken eggs are well absorbed by the body. Eggs are the only product that is digestible by 97-98%. In terms of nutritional value, one chicken egg is equivalent to 200 ml of milk or 50 g of meat. For young children, this is the second most important product after breast milk. Eggs are low in calories - one medium egg contains 75 calories.

Chicken eggs are rich in vitamins, minerals and trace elements necessary in the daily human diet. Eggs contain vitamins A, D, E, H, K, PP and B vitamins. They only lack vitamin C. They also contain phosphorus, chlorine, sulfur, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, fluorine, manganese, iodine. Phosphorus is a part of all body tissues, participates in metabolism, affects the activity of the heart and kidneys, and is necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system. Calcium forms the basis of bone tissue, is contained in the skeleton and teeth, and affects blood clotting. Iron is involved in the processes of hematopoiesis, it is necessary for the formation of hemoglobin, and provides the transport of oxygen in the body. Magnesium supports normal brain function, is involved in bone formation and blood sugar regulation. Potassium regulates the acid-base balance of the blood, participates in the transmission of nerve impulses, improves the functioning of the heart and kidneys.

Eggs are a valuable source of folate, biotin, and choline, which is found in egg yolks. Folic acid (vitamin B9) normalizes the circulatory system, supports the immune system. Biotin (vitamin H) is part of the enzymes that regulate protein and fat metabolism. It improves the condition of skin, hair and nails. Choline (vitamin B4) prevents the formation of fats in the liver, lowers cholesterol levels, activates the brain, and improves memory.

44. Is it harmful to eat eggs because of their cholesterol content?
It used to be recommended to limit the amount of eggs consumed due to the presence of cholesterol in them. But after a lot of research, it turned out that the main cause of high blood cholesterol levels is eating foods high in saturated fat (mainly meat and dairy products). Eggs contain relatively little saturated fat, and egg yolk contains more healthy fats that help cells function properly. Out of 5 g of fat in an egg, harmful saturated fats contributing to the production of cholesterol are only 1.5 g. And the harm from even this insignificant amount of saturated fats is compensated by nutrients that prevent the body from assimilating cholesterol and contribute to its elimination. Choline lowers blood cholesterol, prevents the deposition of cholesterol on the walls of blood vessels. Choline is a part of the phospholipid lecithin, which is an important component of the cells of the body, helps to maintain normal cholesterol levels, prevents the development of liver cirrhosis and cardiovascular diseases, and 50% of the liver is made of lecithin. The body's daily requirement for lecithin is about 5-6 grams. Egg yolk contains about 3.5 grams of lecithin per 100 grams of product (and 100 grams of lamb, beef or peas contains only about 0.8 grams of lecithin).

45. How many eggs can you eat per day or per week?
One egg, and it is in the egg yolk, contains about 215 mg of cholesterol, and the daily intake of cholesterol is about 300 mg. Therefore, people with normal cholesterol levels can safely consume 1 egg per day. With high cholesterol levels or certain diseases (atherosclerosis, cholecystitis, liver diseases), you should limit the consumption of eggs to 3 eggs per week. When using butter, sour cream, fatty meat, sausages or nuts, it is also worth reducing the number of eggs eaten to 2-3 pieces per week. With an elevated cholesterol level, you can eat proteins, and refuse yolks, because it is they that contain cholesterol. Interestingly, it is in Japan, which is considered one of the world leaders in the consumption of chicken eggs per capita, that there is a record number of centenarians and has the lowest rate of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, the previously popular prejudice about the dangers of eggs due to their cholesterol content has long outlived its usefulness.

It is interesting! Which came before: chicken or egg?

Scientists and philosophers believe that the egg was the first, theologians argue with this. Total - 2: 1 - in favor of the egg. From the point of view of scientists, the egg appeared long before the appearance of the chicken in the process of evolution, besides, everyone knows the fact that the origin of life occurs in the egg.

From Aristotle to Darwin
The first problem "egg or chicken" (or, more precisely, "egg or bird") was raised by Aristotle. He believed that the bird and the egg appeared at the same time. More than 2 thousand years ago, Aristotle reasoned as follows: the egg could not be the first to give rise to the birds, because it must itself be laid by it, and the bird cannot be the first, since it appeared from the egg itself, it means that they appeared simultaneously (??? ).

Later this problem was widely discussed by the philosophers of Ancient Greece, including Plutarch, who formulated the question in the usual version for us - "an egg or a chicken". Medieval scholastics were also actively involved in this problem, who took the teachings of Aristotle as the basis of their philosophy - and they came to much more complicated conclusions than a simple reading of the Bible, from which the primacy of the chicken seems to follow:

“And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said: Let the water bring forth reptiles, the living soul; and let the birds fly over the earth, in the firmament of heaven. And God created the great fish, and every living creature that creeps, which the water produced, after its kind, and every bird of the feathers after its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying: be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth ”(Gen. 1: 19-22).

From the point of view of Darwin's theory, the first was the egg. Since the egg is the largest cell, and the world, according to Darwin, arose from the smallest "self-living" cells.

A philosophical view of the egg
In turn, in order to get an answer, modern philosophers tried to find a logical error in the question. The first idea is that the concepts "egg" and "chicken" themselves have an indistinct volume, and in nature there may be objects about which it is impossible to say clearly whether they are included or not included in the concepts of "eggs" or "chicken".
There are different types of eggs, from eggs to eggs, which some people may refer to as an "egg", while others may not.

In the process of evolution, there were many intermediate forms of birds, about which it is impossible to say unambiguously whether it is a chicken or not. Before the chicken, there was an intermediate form of a bird that also laid eggs, and at some point this bird was called a chicken, and its eggs were called chicken.

Another approach assumes that there is a strict solution to the paradox - a clear line between "chicken" and "non-chicken". In this case, the solution to the paradox depends on the precise definition of what is a "chicken egg". If it is “the egg that the hen laid down,” then first there was the hen, and if “the egg from which the hen will hatch,” then the first was the egg.

A beautiful solution was proposed by the British philosopher Spencer in the 19th century: "The chicken is just the way one egg produces another egg," thus eliminating one of the objects of the mystery.

The modern view of biologists
Modern biologists believe that the egg as an object arose before the chicken, since egg-laying appeared much earlier than the chicken and the bird in general (for example, in dinosaurs, Archeopteryx). That is, tens of millions of years ago, long before the appearance of birds, eggs already existed.

If we talk specifically about the chicken egg, then our modern knowledge of genetics comes to the rescue. It is known that in the process of life the genetic material remains unchanged, that is, an adult bird - the ancestor of a chicken, could not mutate into a chicken after it had hatched from an egg.
This means that the mutation that led to the emergence of a new biological species could have occurred only at the stage of the embryo - inside the egg. Thus, a chicken could hatch from an egg that was laid by a non-chicken ancestor bird. Therefore, in the evolutionary sense, the egg was the first.

However, nature always turns out to be more amazing than our modern ideas about it. In 2012, the BBC reported on a curious incident in Sri Lanka, where a hen gave birth to a chicken without laying an egg. The chicken was born healthy and fully formed, but the chicken died from internal trauma during childbirth. According to veterinarians, the fertilized egg developed into a full-fledged chicken in 21 days.
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Masterfully painted or modest, painted with onion peels, as my grandmother once did, pasted over with pictures from the supermarket or with the initial letters “XB” drawn out of the hand, surprisingly, but the Easter egg is always at the head of the Bright holiday. How did it come to the center of attention of Christians and not only? And how does he even in the XXI century manage to push us, who cannot step without a wifa, observe ancient traditions - paint, exchange, clink glasses? And in the end, why does a whole world full of meanings and legends revolve around an ordinary egg? Want to know the whole truth about the Easter egg? Then join us!

In the beginning was the Egg

There are two parables most common among Christians, explaining how the egg is associated with Easter (and what rarely happens in such cases, these legends do not even contradict each other). According to the first, the entrance to the tomb, where the body of Jesus Christ rested, was closed by a huge stone, shaped like an egg. As the Gospel of Peter tells, on the third day after the burial of Jesus, the guards guarding the entrance to the Holy Sepulcher saw angels descending from heaven, at the appearance of which the stone rolled away by itself. A small fragment of that sacred stone has survived to this day - it is kept in the chapel of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in Jerusalem. So the egg became a symbol of the coffin, in whose depths life was born, which is destined to be born in spite of any obstacles. They say that in Poland there is even such a proverb: "Christ rose alive from the grave in the same way as a chicken hatched from an egg."

Another parable introduces us to the miracle that happened to an ordinary egg in front of the Emperor Tiberius, during whose reign Jesus Christ was crucified. After Christ's ascension to heaven, St. Mary Magdalene, Equal to the Apostles, went to preach in Rome. At that time, it was unthinkable to pay a visit to the ruler empty-handed: and if the rich brought gold, jewelry, food, then the poor people presented the emperor with the simplest, but valuable things for them, for example, poultry eggs. Mary Magdalene brought not only an egg, but also an amazing message: "Christ is Risen!" The emperor, whom historians described as a shrewd but self-willed person, doubted and said, they say, no one can rise from the dead, just as this very white egg cannot become red. And as soon as he uttered this, the egg changed its color. According to one of the versions, the amazed emperor even replied: “Indeed he is risen!”, Thus giving rise to the tradition of the Easter appeal of Christians to each other (of course, by chance, because Tiberius believed in Jupiter, Neptune and the entire host of Roman gods).

In general, the legend about the meeting of Mary Magdalene with Tiberius, according to researchers, refers to the late Middle Ages and, of course, is not supported by any evidence. Well, let it be, but it became, perhaps, the most harmonious and poetic explanation of the presence of an egg on the Easter table. However, in one of the tenth century manuscripts found in the library of the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. ! ".

But not only Christians endowed the egg with additional meanings. Man has always seen something more in him. In the folklore and beliefs of many peoples, no, no, let the egg flash - as a symbol of life, hope, purity and beginnings. For example, Brahma, the creator god in Hinduism, was born from a golden egg, from the remains of which the Universe then sprouted. In the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, there is also a place for the Shining Egg: it was carried by a heavenly goose, and it was from it that the sun god Ra appeared later. And in ancient China, it was believed that once upon a time chaos reigned everywhere, and he was imprisoned in a huge egg. Inside the egg, the ancestor Pan-gu was born by himself, who with his ax broke the shell right inside the egg and separated Yin (earth) from Yang (sky). In Buddhism, the shell of an egg also figured and was identified with the "shell of ignorance" - to get rid of it meant to be born a second time, to achieve enlightenment.

So there is no doubt, the egg - excuse the pun - the bird is important! And on Easter it is customary to emphasize this importance ...

Decorate and paint!

Easter is a holiday that believers have always treated with special respect and love, scrupulously observing the customs even with regard to the decoration of the main Easter symbol. Obviously, the true color of an Easter egg is red. And the point here is not only in the parable of the miraculous transformation of an egg in front of the speechless Emperor Tiberius. Red symbolizes the sacrificial blood of the Savior, it is the color of fertility, joy, love, the triumph of life.

In small things, people learned to work miracles with their own hands and figured out how to paint eggs in red, and in general in all kinds of colors. In the Orthodox tradition, depending on the nature of the painting, eggs were even divided into three types: Easter eggs, dyes and specks.

Krashenka is a solid color Easter egg. Orthodox Christians prepared thirteen girls for the feast, according to the number of the apostles with Jesus Christ at the head. The color of the dye became a separate message, and the work on the palette at first required ingenuity: red (decoction of onion husks or beets) - joy, yellow (birch leaves, calendula, apple bark) - sunlight, green (nettle, young rye shoots) - spring and hope, brown (oak bark, alder) - fertility, and blue-black (mallow petals) signified sorrow - these colors, contrary to the meaning of Easter as a celebration of life over death, were painted in order to leave loved ones on the graves on commemoration days.

Pysanka gave more room for imagination, but also required special skill and artistic skills. This is an Easter egg with a ritual ornament or a plot pattern applied. It is difficult to imagine that our ancestors spent time on actually jewelry work on an egg, when there was a whole load of chores on the house on Maundy Thursday (and it was customary to paint eggs on that day). And yet, the creation of Easter eggs has become a separate type of decorative folk art, a sacred ritual, the roots of which go back to pagan times.

The fact is that Easter eggs are, in fact, a talisman in which a person invested a lot of personal, and that is why it was customary to make them for themselves and loved ones, and not for sale ... Easter eggs were created for family, children, for health and fertility , military and economic. The women applied wax to the egg, cut through the designs on the solidified mass, dyed the egg, then cut it again and dyed it again. And in the end, the wax was piled up, leaving only the resulting bright pattern. Those who were richer used paper, beads, fabric, threads, fresh flowers in needlework. Easter eggs were not offered for the meal - simpler eggs were used. The Easter egg consecrated in the church was carefully kept: the egg was placed in a wicker basket and hung in the center of the hut. She not only guarded the house, walked around the field with an Easter egg to attract the harvest, threw it into the fire to avoid fires, rolled it over a sick person for healing, and even looked for treasure with her help.

By the way, in the Ukrainian city of Kolomyia there is Easter Egg Museum, the exposition of which has over 6,000 eggs. In addition to Ukrainian and Russian, French, Swedish, Canadian, Czech Easter eggs, there are ancient specimens from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Iran and other parts of the world where the egg is of special honor.

Krapanka- This is another type of egg painting, which also requires considerable skill. Its name comes from the Old Slavonic "drop": an Easter egg is painted with large colored dots, small specks, splashes or short strokes. At a time when the range of art supplies was limited, it was possible to make speckles using the same wax. First, the egg was painted in one color, wax was dripped onto it, then in some places the wax was peeled off, and the egg was repainted - and so on several times. The result is a very joyful and colorful egg, as if everything is in a glare of light.

Today, of course, painting an Easter egg has become a whole trend in needlework and, in a sense, even a gambling business. On the Internet, you can find a lot of incredible ways to create works of home art: not only banal food colors and thermal films are used, but also acrylic, decoupage products, stencils, cereals, vegetable oil to simulate streaks, floss, lace ... there, eggs are painted in the style of pop art and in the spirit of cubism, portraits of comic and cartoon characters, logos of famous brands and even QR codes appear on them. Maybe it sometimes seems that the desire to achieve originality prevailed over the original meaning of the Easter egg, but the main thing is that it is made with love!

The egg is all over the head

“A testicle is dear to the day of Christ” - this is how the Russian proverb says, reminding that what is done on time is especially valuable. Indeed, the Easter egg on Bright Sunday is used in a host of Christian and folk rituals. Without it, one might say, nowhere!

First meal. A painstakingly decorated and consecrated egg is an obligatory part of the first Passover meal, when, having come from the morning service, the faithful sat down to fast after Lent. Tasting an egg on Easter morning is a guarantee of a joyful holiday, a happy life and health.

Giving and christening. Today we continue the tradition started by Mary Magdalene. Decorated eggs become a lavish Easter gift and are exchanged as a sign of love, hospitality and the unity of the faithful. "Christ is Risen!" - they say, handing an egg to a loved one in order to hear in response: "Truly He is Risen!" After that, you need to cry out - that is, kiss three times on the cheeks. By the way, if you do everything according to the rules, then the younger member of the family should be the first to pronounce the Easter greeting.

Cue ball. It is not known where the tradition of beating eggs on Easter came from. That was the way it was. And today, don't you start your Easter day with a symbolic collision of two eggs - whose is it stronger? But the interpretation of this custom is very interesting. The first version is that good and evil are fighting among themselves: an egg, which, fortunately, did not break, stood against an obstacle, is the winner - it was kept in the house as a talisman. Another version is also quite true. In more conservative times, publicly kissing was not accepted, therefore, when congratulating each other on Easter, people christened by beating eggs. There is one more explanation: the most fortunate is the one whose egg did break, because when the shell is opened, Christ himself appears from the egg, as from the tomb. Be that as it may, cue balls are a wonderful holiday tradition that unobtrusively introduces children to the Easter story, and does not let adults get bored!

Egg rolling. In the course of the Orthodox there was another Easter fun - rolling eggs from a small slide. The meaning of the game was to accurately hit the opponents' eggs laid out under the hill - if a rolling egg hit someone lying on the ground, the player took this egg for himself. Or the victory went to the one whose egg rolled further, passing obstacles. Sometimes colored eggs and all sorts of simple prizes were laid out at the foot of the hill. The one that knocked out the rolled testicle was the prize. Experienced players knew how to throw an egg especially dexterously, for example, with a twist or so that at the moment of a collision it would turn towards the target with a sharp end and would certainly break it. Easter egg rolling is a common Christian tradition. To this day, the game is a fun part of the holiday in Germany. And even on the lawn in front of the White House in Washington, DC (it's called the White House Easter Egg Roll), they even have fun rolling eggs on Easter - but here children roll eggs, hmm, with ladles. In general, you have to try!

Easter bunny hunting

Despite the fact that the egg as an Easter attribute is ubiquitous among Christians, among Catholics the rabbit is the main symbol of Easter. It is believed that its appearance in the history of the Bright Resurrection dates back to ancient Germanic pagan traditions: the constant companion of the fertility goddess Eostra, who was honored on the day of the vernal equinox, was a rabbit, famous for its fertility. The legend was documented in Germany in the 16th century - then the first story about a rabbit was published, which on the eve of Easter laid eggs (what a surprise!) And hid them in the garden like a treasure. According to the German belief, which later spread throughout Europe, and then migrated to North America, the Easter bunny leaves a nest with colorful eggs as a gift for good kids as a gift, which must be found by all means! Sometimes the kids even "build" this hidden nest and wait for the rabbit to pay a visit (much like waiting for Santa under the tree on Christmas Eve). Images of these wonderful, generous hares holding eggs in their paws, as well as their figurines made of wood, porcelain, wax, dough and - the most desirable! - from chocolate eventually became a symbol of Catholic Easter. "Hunting" for the Easter bunny and searching for the presents in store has turned into family entertainment, which both adults and children are waiting for on Easter. Toy rabbits today are the heroes of whole plots and compositions: they study at school, play, participate in the Easter feast, in general, they set a good example with their whole appearance!

The custom of decorating the Easter tree by analogy with the Christmas tree also came from Europe - it is a symbol of the Tree of Life, the riot of spring. Trees in the courtyards or homemade bouquets of twigs are decorated with ribbons, bows, Easter eggs. The most famous and most beautiful Easter tree grows in the garden of the German Volker Kraft, in the city of Saalfeld: for 50 years he has been decorating an apple tree near his house with colored eggs - and there are already more than ten thousand of them! Volker Kraft saw the first Easter tree (Osterbaum in German) as a child, in 1945, and got fired up with the idea of ​​"growing" his own. In 1965, together with his wife Christa, he began to make the dream come true - first, 18 plastic eggs appeared on the apple tree, then, deciding that plastic jewelry was too expensive, the couple took up needlework. They began to paint the eggs by hand, and so that they were not too heavy for the tree, they blew out the contents of the egg, leaving only an elegant shell. For half a century, the collection, in the creation of which all family and friends took part, has grown so much that there is simply nowhere to store eggs. In 2015, the branches of the Easter tree, from which even from the photographs take your breath, were decorated with ten thousand eggs, among which, according to local residents, no two are alike. It's not for you to decorate the tree - the Kraft family starts decorating the tree a few weeks before Easter! Hundreds of tourists come to admire it and, inspired by the wonderful Easter tradition, spread it all over the world.

Egg Masscult

Painting, cinema, literature, design, even computer games - Easter eggs are everywhere. And we decided to hunt for them ...

In the famous novel by the Russian writer Ivan Shmelev "The Lord's Summer", the work on which lasted as much as 14 years, several chapters are devoted to Easter. All of them are permeated with some kind of heart-pinching warmth, joy and faith that does not require explanations - when you read, you want to return to childhood and wait for Bright Sunday under the aromas of Easter cakes:

“Great Saturday evening. The house is quiet, everyone lay down before matins. I make my way into the hall to see what's on the street. There are few people, they carry Easter and Easter cakes in cardboard boxes. In the hall, the wallpaper is pink - from the sun, it is setting. In the rooms there are crimson lamps, Easter ones: were they blue on Christmas? .. They put down an Easter carpet in the living room, with crimson bouquets. They removed the gray covers from the burgundy chairs. On the images there are wreaths of roses. In the hall and in the corridors there are new red "carpets". In the dining room, on the windows, there are colored eggs in baskets, crimson: tomorrow Father will confer with the people. In the front hall - green quarters with wine: bring. On downy pillows, in the dining room on the sofa - so as not to fall through! - there are huge Easter cakes, covered with pink muslin, - they are cooling down. Smells from them sweet fragrant warmth. "

“I examine the testicles given to me. Here is crystal gold, through it - everything is magical. Here - with a stretching fat worm; it has a black head, black beady eyes and a tongue of scarlet cloth. With soldiers, with ducks, carved-bone ... And now, porcelain - father. A wonderful panorama in it ... Behind the pink and blue flowers of immortelle and moss, behind a glass in a gold rim, a picture is seen in the depths: a snow-white Christ with a banner has risen from the Sepulcher. The nanny told me that if you look behind the glass for a long, long time, you will see a living angel. Tired of strict days, of bright lights and ringing, I peer through the glass. Dying in my eyes - and it seems to me, in flowers, - alive, inexplicably joyful, holy ... - God? .. Cannot be conveyed in words. I press the testicle to my chest - and the sleepy chime shakes me in my sleep. "

But Alexander Kuprin's story "Easter Eggs" (1911) turned out to be very ironic - but Easter was so successful for his protagonist ...

“Tomorrow we have Bright Resurrection, and I can see from all your little bags, rolls and cardboard boxes that you are bringing home holiday gifts: different testicles with snakes, compound testicles with rings, lambs, flowers. Well, I’ll tell you how, through one Easter egg, I lost my inheritance, family and support, and all this in my adolescent years. ” The hero of the story gave his rich, callous and hot-tempered uncle an unusual egg from a flower shop. If you write any letters on that egg with water and sprinkle with watercress seeds, then in a week good Easter words will grow on its surface in green. But by accident or by mistake of the salesman, the uncle, who in his 70 years was very proud of his black hair, got an egg with the inscription from the sprouted watercress: "I was bald." So the hero was left without an inheritance.

Of course, Easter eggs are found in religious painting. In Orthodox icon painting, Mary Magdalene, revered as a saint equal to the apostles, is rarely depicted in some scenes, mainly as a myrrh-bearing wife with a vessel of incense. But sometimes you can see her with a red Easter egg in her hands. The already familiar Easter story is captured by the Russian painter Vasily Vereshchagin in the painting "The Visit of Mary Magdalene to the Emperor Tiberius" - it adorns the wall of the Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem.

Faberge eggs in general, they have become a household term, a symbol of an expensive, refined gift. Meanwhile, Carl Faberge and his firm's jewelers created the first egg in 1885 by order of Emperor Alexander III, precisely as an Easter surprise for his wife Maria Feodorovna. It was called "Chicken" and was covered on the outside with white, under the shell, enamel, and inside, in the "yolk" of matte gold, there was a chicken made of colored gold. But the surprise did not end there - inside the chicken was a miniature copy of the imperial crown made of gold with diamonds and a chain with a ruby ​​pendant. This is a pysanka, so a pysanka! However, Carl Faberge borrowed the whole idea: at the beginning of the 18th century, European craftsmen had already made a similar egg, several of which are kept today in museum collections in Dresden, Vienna and Copenhagen. And yet Faberge so impressed the empress with his creation that he was immediately recognized as a court jeweler and received an order to create an egg every year. By the way, the work was so painstaking and delicate that one egg really took almost a whole year. This tradition continued until the reign of Nicholas II. From 1885 to 1917, 71 eggs of indescribable beauty were created, of which 52 are considered imperial.

In modern mass culture there is a metaphorical concept of "Easter eggs" - a kind of riddle, an author's hint hidden inside a work, whether it be a TV series, book, comic strip, game, or even computer software!

This is where the symbolism of the egg is revealed to its fullest! It is believed that the first "Easter egg" ("Easter Egg", Easter Egg) was deliberately used in 1979 by Warren Robinette, the programmer of the computer game "Adventure". Then the authors of the game were not officially indicated anywhere, and the vain Robinnet decided to hide the mention of himself inside the game: to get into the room with the developer's name, you had to find an invisible point in one of the parts of the maze and move it to the other end of the level. Gradually, postmodern "secrets" with the light hand of directors, programmers, animators began to appear in various genres. For fanatical and attentive viewers, readers, gamers, it has become a special adventure and pleasure to look for copyright hints. For example, in the movie Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), hieroglyphs in the form of robots from Star Wars R2D2 and C-3PO can be seen on the walls of an ancient temple! And on the cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band "is a reference to The Rolling Stones - a Shirley Temple doll with the inscription" Welcome the Rolling Stones ". By the way, a few months later, The Rolling Stones responded to their colleagues and released an album, on the cover of which the faces of the Beatles peep out of the flower bushes. Easter Eggs are hidden in Fight Club, A Clockwork Orange, The Matrix, Lost, Breaking Bad, The Simpsons, Aladdin, most computer games, uTorrent and a lot of other works. Look for yourself, because if you were good boys and girls, the Easter bunny will definitely have some surprises for you!

This big egg investigation led us to believe that the Easter egg has the miraculous power to unite nations and denominations, children and adults, chocolate lovers and adventurers, ancient traditions and modernity. The custom of christening, "clinking glasses" with eggs on Easter, of course, is widespread in Cyprus. We wish you a happy Easter and “Καλά τσουγκρίσματα! (kalA tsugrIzmata), which means "good clinking glasses"!

Text: Ekaterina Moshkina

Even today, Faberge is perhaps one of the most famous jewelry brands. And all thanks to the precious eggs that were produced by this jewelry house for the Russian imperial family. Today, these works of art are a huge rarity, shrouded in secrets, and their cost reaches tens of millions of dollars. In our review, little-known facts about the world's most famous eggs.

1. Imperial Easter traditions

The tradition of painting Easter eggs has existed in Russia since ancient times. The imperial family also followed it. But in 1885, Tsar Alexander III, without suspecting it himself, somewhat transformed this tradition. Deciding to surprise his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna, he gave her a special gift - an egg with a secret. It was a precious egg, covered with white enamel, across which there was a golden stripe. It opened, and inside was a golden "yolk". In it, in turn, sat a golden chicken, inside which was a ruby ​​crown and a pendant. The Empress was delighted with such a gift, and Alexander III presented his wife with a new precious egg every Easter. This tradition was continued by the son of Alexander III, Nicholas II, who gave precious eggs to his mother and wife on Easter holidays.

2. The main rule is a surprise inside

The author of the Easter eggs ordered by Russian emperors was the jeweler Peter Carl Faberge. He was given complete freedom of creativity, he could create precious eggs on any topic. But there was still one rule: each egg should be a surprise. Therefore, in every Faberge egg was hidden a tiny miracle: a tiny diamond replica of the royal crown, a miniature ruby ​​pendant, a mechanical swan, an elephant, a golden miniature of a palace, 11 tiny portraits on an easel, a ship model, an exact working replica of a royal carriage, and much more.

4. Peter Carl Faberge - Russian jeweler with European roots

The famous jeweler was born in Russia in St. Petersburg on May 30, 1846. Father - Gustav Faberge was from Pärnu (Estonia) and came from a German family, mother - Charlotte Jungstedt, was the daughter of a Danish artist. In 1841, Faberge Sr. received the title of "Jewelry Master" and in 1842 founded a jewelry company in St. Petersburg on Bolshaya Morskaya Street at number 12. The talent of the young man was so bright and uncommon that at the age of 24 in 1870 he was able to take his father's firm into his own hands.

In 1882, the All-Russian Art and Industry Exhibition was held in Moscow. It was there that the Emperor Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna noticed the works of Peter Carl Faberge. Thus, Faberge Jr. received the patronage of the royal family and the title of "jeweler of His Imperial Majesty and jeweler of the Imperial Hermitage".

Faberge products were also famous in Europe. Numerous royal and princely relatives of the Russian imperial family in Great Britain, Denmark, Greece, Bulgaria received jewelry as a gift, treasured it and passed it on by inheritance.

The 1917 revolution forced Faberge to close the firm. He emigrated to Switzerland, where he died in 1920.

5. The Bolsheviks, unwillingly, saved the Faberge eggs

After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks, trying to replenish the treasury of "the world's first communist state", were selling Russian art treasures. They plundered churches, sold canvases by old masters from the Hermitage Museum and took on crowns, diadems, necklaces and Faberge eggs that belonged to the Emperor's family.

In 1925, the catalog of the values ​​of the imperial court (crowns, wedding crowns, scepter, orb, diadems, necklaces and other jewelry, including the famous Faberge eggs) was sent to all foreign representatives in the USSR. Part of the Diamond Fund was sold to the English antiquarian Norman Weiss. In 1928, seven "low-value" Faberge eggs and 45 other items were withdrawn from the Diamond Fund.

However, it was thanks to this that the Faberge eggs were saved from being melted down. ... Thus, one of the most incredible works of Faberge, the Peacock egg, has been preserved. Inside the masterpiece of crystal and gold was an enameled peacock. Moreover, this bird was mechanical - when it was removed from the golden branch, the peacock raised its tail like a real bird and could even walk.

6. The missing egg bag

A total of 50 precious eggs were made for the Russian imperial family. The fate of seven of them is unknown today, most likely they are in private collections. The fate of the egg-case, created in the Faberge workshop in 1889, is also covered with mystery. This egg was last seen in a London store in 1949. According to rumors, it was sold to an unknown person for $ 1250. Today, the cost of Faberge eggs reaches $ 30 million.

7. One egg was purchased as precious metal scrap

One of the lost imperial Easter eggs was found in a completely surprising way. The American bought a golden egg, studded with precious stones, for $ 14,000 for scrap and wanted to resell it at a better price. But when there were no buyers, he decided to look for an outlandish souvenir on the Internet and was surprised to find that it was the work of Faberge. After examination, it was confirmed that this is one of the long-lost Imperial Easter eggs. Instead of $ 500 in profit, the dealer received about $ 33 million by selling the egg to a private collector.

8. Queen Elizabeth II owns three imperial Faberge eggs

The British royal family has three Imperial Faberge Easter eggs: Colonnade, Basket of Flowers and Mosaic. Special attention is drawn to the "Flower Basket", the flowers in which look fresh and surprisingly realistic.

The British Faberge collection is one of the largest in the world. In addition to the legendary eggs, it contains several hundred jewelry masterpieces: boxes, frames, animal figurines and personal jewelry of members of the Imperial Houses of Russia, Great Britain and Denmark. Despite the size of the British collection, this is only a small fraction of the 200,000 pieces of jewelery produced by the Fabergé Jewelry House.

9. Eggs of the Kelch family

When the Kelchs divorced, the entrepreneur's ex-wife took her Faberge collection with her to Paris. Six of the eggs ended up in the United States. Initially, the eggs were mistaken for items from the imperial collection, and it was not until 1979 that all seven eggs were found to be from the Kelch collection.

10. Return of Faberge

After the revolution, the Faberge brand was resold several times. Unfortunately, the big name was used by a toilet cleaner, shampoo and cologne company. The last company to acquire the brand, Pallinghurst Resources, decided in 2007 to restore it to its former glory by resuming jewelry production. Two years later, thanks to the efforts of Peter Faberge's granddaughters Sarah and Tatiana, the world saw new Faberge jewelry for the first time since 1917. These products are clearly far from those that were made at the beginning of the 20th century, but, no less, today you can buy jewelry from at a price of $ 8,000 - $ 600,000.

Faberge eggs are one of the most expensive jewelry in the world. Truly a royal gift. The first Faberge egg appeared in 1885. It was ordered by the Russian Emperor Alexander III as an Easter gift for his wife Maria Feodorovna. And Carl Faberge and the jewelers of his company took up the creation of this gift.

Carl Faberge was born in Russia, in St. Petersburg. He was born in 1846 in the family of a German from Estonia Gustav Faberge and the daughter of a Danish artist Charlotte Jungstedt. Back in 1842, his father founded a jewelry company in St. Petersburg, Karl also studied jewelry from a young age and at the age of 24 became the head of his father's company. And in 1882, at the All-Russian Art and Industry Exhibition in Moscow, the products of his company attracted the attention of Emperor Alexander III, the Faberge company began to receive orders from the imperial court. Faberge products were also famous in Europe, so in Paris Carl Faberge was awarded the title of "Master of the Paris Guild of Jewelers". After the revolution, Faberge closed his firm and emigrated to Lausanne, Switzerland, where he died in 1920. His sons in 1923 founded the firm "Faberge and Co" in Paris.

Carl Faberge produced various, but it was jewelry eggs, known throughout the world as Faberge eggs, that brought him fame.

By the way, the first egg he created in 1885 had its own prototype. In the 18th century, jewelry Easter eggs were made with a surprise chicken inside, and in the chicken itself there was a crown, and in the crown there was a ring. This is exactly what the first egg created by Faberge in 1885 was. An egg presented to Empress Maria Feodorovna, who, like Carl Faberge himself, had Danish roots. After all, one of three similar eggs that have survived from the 18th century is exactly the same stored in the Danish Rosenborg castle (Copenhagen).

Later, a number of Easter eggs were made by the Faberge firm. In total, there are 71 Faberge eggs in the world. And 54 of them were imperial. Alexander III became the founder of the tradition, on Easter he presented Faberge eggs to his wife Maria Fedorovna, after his death this tradition was continued by his son, Nicholas II. He gave Faberge Easter eggs to both his wife and his mother, Maria Feodorovna.

There are also about 15 eggs made by Faberge for individuals. And if the imperial eggs were new every time, each time with a new surprise inside, and the company began to manufacture them a year before next Easter, then Faberge eggs for individuals often copy the plots of the imperial. So known are 7 eggs belonging to the Kelch family. The entrepreneur, gold miner, Alexander Kelkh, like the emperor, gave Faberge eggs to his wife for Easter. The first egg of Kelch, which is called "Chicken Kelch", copies the plot of the first imperial "Chicken" egg. But soon the Kelch couple separated, and their financial situation worsened. They were no longer interested in Faberge eggs. Also, non-imperial Faberge eggs were made to order for Felix Yusupov (a representative of a fairly wealthy noble family, in the future the assassin of Rasputin, so valued by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna), nephew of Alfred Nobel, Rothschilds, Duchess of Marlborough.

The imperial Faberge eggs had quite a variety of plots: it could be clock eggs or eggs with various figures inside, the eggs themselves could also contain various miniatures as a surprise, for example, there was an "Egg with rotating miniatures", inside which there were 12 miniatures with images of memorial places for the emperor. The most expensive of the Faberge eggs paid for by the Romanovs is the Winter egg. It was made of crystal and opals. The surprise of this egg was a basket of anemones.

Carl Faberge Easter eggs after the October coup.

During the revolution, some of the Faberge eggs were lost, most were transported to the Kremlin, where they were kept until 1930. In 1930, the sale of many items began, which undoubtedly constituted the Russian cultural heritage, due to the lack of financial resources from the Soviet government. Many Faberge eggs were also sold. Many of them were bought by Armand Hammer and Emmanuel Snowman Wartzky. Forbes was also an ardent collector of Faberge eggs. His collection consisted of 11 imperial and 4 private Faberge eggs. In 2004, this collection was put up for auction, before which it was completely bought out by the Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. So some of the Faberge eggs returned to their homeland.

Today, in Russia, Faberge eggs can be seen in the Armory (10 pieces), the Vekselberg collection, the Russian National Museum and the Mineralogical Museum. A.E. Fersman RAS.

Many of the Faberge eggs are in various collections in the United States. Several pieces of these miniature treasures are also present in the collections of Queen Elizabeth II of England, Albert.

Each of the Faberge eggs has its own destiny, its own history. Only one of Faberge's eggs "Georgievskoe" was able to leave revolutionary Russia together with its rightful owner, Empress Maria Feodorovna, mother of the last Russian emperor Nicholas II.

The "George" egg was created in 1915, after Nicholas II received the "Order of St. George" award. Earlier this award was also awarded to his son Alexey, for his visits to the front line. Nicholas II ordered this egg especially for his mother. His portrait was a surprise. Maria Fedorovna warmly thanked her son for the gift and wrote:
“I kiss you three times and thank you with all my heart for your lovely card and lovely egg with miniatures, good Faberge himself brought. Amazingly beautiful. It’s very sad not to be together. I sincerely wish you, my dear dear Nicky, all the best and all the best and success in everything. Your dearly loving old Mama. "

Today there is a whole website of the Vekselberg collection (https://www.treasuresofimperialrussia.com/r_explore.html), where you can learn in detail the history of each of the Faberge eggs in this collection.

It cannot be argued that it was Carl Faberge himself who created all the eggs. After all, as soon as a new order was received, a whole team of the firm's jewelers immediately began to work on it. The names of many of them have survived. These are August Holstrom, Henryk Wigstrom, and Eric Colleen. And Mikhail Perkhin, who worked on the creation of Kelch eggs.

But in addition to genuine Faberge eggs, their numerous fakes are also known, which sometimes are in no way inferior to the originals in their elegance. So in the mid-1990s, the Metropolitan Museum (New York, USA) hosted a whole exhibition dedicated to fake Faberge eggs.

Since 1937, the Faberge brand has not belonged to the descendants of Carl Faberge himself, who sold it to American Samuel Rubin. In the 20th century, a variety of products were produced under this brand: from perfumes and clothing to films. And in 2009, the Faberge jewelry house appeared, which belongs to the South African businessman Brian Gilbertson. He acquired all the rights to the brand in 2007. In 2011, Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg tried to buy out the Faberge brand, but he failed.

This is the story of the most famous, most luxurious, most fabulous and most expensive Easter eggs.

Eggs are one of the most ancient types of human food.

They are included in sacred symbolism, myths, tales and sayings of most peoples of the world and in many cultures are a symbol of life.

This is a valuable food product containing almost all, except for vitamin C, essential substances for a person: vitamins A, D, E, H, K, PP and group B, phosphorus, chlorine, sulfur, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, fluorine, manganese, iodine.

At the same time, it is also a low-calorie food: there are about 75 calories in one average copy. They ideally combine proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, while one piece can contain up to 14% of the daily protein intake.
Eggs are the only type of food that is assimilated by 97%, which is why (and also due to the richest composition) yolk is one of the first to be introduced into the composition of baby food.

How to know if an egg is fresh and why an egg floats in water; whether the chicken is breathing in the egg; what is the danger of raw eggs; at what temperature does Salmonella die; how to properly cook and store chicken eggs; is it possible to store eggs in the freezer; why there are two yolks in an egg, as well as other interesting facts about eggs.

1. What does a chicken egg consist of?
The formed egg consists of white, yolk, shell and shells. In a chicken egg, 10-12% of the mass is shell, 56-61% - protein and 27-32% - yolk. In the liquid content of eggs without shells, protein accounts for about 64%, and yolk - 36%.

2. What are eggshells made of?
According to studies by Hungarian doctors, it has been proven that the shell of eggs is 90% calcium carbonate (calcium carbonate). In addition, the shell also contains magnesium (0.55%), phosphorus (0.25%), silicon (0.12%), potassium (0.08%), sodium (0.03%), copper, iron, sulfur, fluorine, aluminum, manganese, zinc, molybdenum and many other elements (27 in total). Interestingly, the composition of eggshells is very similar to the composition of human bones and teeth.

Outside, the shell is covered with a layer of dried mucus - the shell membrane, which protects against moisture evaporation from the egg and the penetration of microorganisms. Inside there is a shell membrane that does not allow protein to pass through, delays the penetration of bacteria, but allows air, moisture and ultraviolet rays to pass through. And it is followed by an elastic protein film.

3. How does a chick breathe in an egg through the shell?
The egg breathes thanks to the pores in the shell. At first glance, the shell seems to be dense, but in fact it has a porous structure that is permeable to gases. If you look at the surface of the shell with a magnifying glass, you can see many small pores through which air flows for the chick. Oxygen enters the egg through the pores, and carbon dioxide and moisture are removed. The shell of a chicken egg has about 7,500 pores! At the blunt end of the egg, there are more pores and fewer at the sharp end.

4. What is the thickness of the chicken egg shell?
The thickness of the shell of chicken eggs ranges from 0.3 to 0.4 mm, and it is not the same over the entire surface of the egg. At the sharp end of the egg, the shell is slightly thicker than at the blunt end. It is worth noting that the eggs of the same bird can have different shell thicknesses. The shell is thicker at the beginning of lay, usually in winter, and thinner from March to September. One of the reasons for the decrease in shell strength is the depletion of calcium reserves in the bird's body by the end of the laying season.

5. What determines the color of the eggshell?
The color of the eggshell depends on the breed of the laying hen. Interestingly, in most cases, chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs, and chickens with red ears lay brown eggs.

6. Which eggs are better - white or brown?
This question interests many housewives. In fact, there is no difference between brown and white eggs. The shell color of chicken eggs does not affect the nutritional value of the egg, its taste and quality. It also has nothing to do with the freshness of the eggs. However, it should be noted that brown eggs have thicker shells, but they are more likely to show blood stains. Due to their stronger shell, brown eggs last a little longer and are easier to transport without damage. Therefore, they are appreciated by poultry farmers.

7. How to distinguish fresh from stale eggs?
You need to put the egg in the water. If it is fresh, it will lie flat on the bottom of the dish. If the egg is more than one week old, then its blunt end will pop up. An egg hanging vertically in water is 2-3 weeks old, and an egg that has emerged is 6-7 weeks old.

8. Why do stale eggs float?
The buoyancy of an egg depends on its freshness. The fact is that at the blunt end of the egg, an air chamber (puga) is gradually formed between the sub-membrane and albuminous membranes. During storage, moisture evaporates from the egg through the pores, increasing the air space. Therefore, the longer the egg is stored, the more the size of the air chamber increases. That is why when buying eggs you should choose eggs with a matte surface, and not with a shiny one - this indicates the degree of their freshness. If the eggs are large but light, then they have a large air chamber and are approaching the end of their shelf life. You can shake the egg to determine the freshness of an egg in a store. If the contents dangle from side to side, such an egg is already spoiled and cannot be bought.

9. Why is it sometimes difficult to peel eggs?
It turns out that this depends on the freshness of the eggs. The contents of recently laid eggs adhere more tightly to the shell film, making fresh eggs harder to clean. And if they lie in the refrigerator for a week or two, then after boiling they can be cleaned easier and faster.

10. Why do hard-boiled eggs sometimes have a gray-green yolk?
This happens if, as a rule, a not very fresh egg is boiled for too long or if it is not cooled in time after boiling. In overcooked eggs, the yolk shell becomes greenish. This is due to the reaction of iron and sulfur, which are contained in eggs. When eggs are heated, sulfur from the protein comes into contact with iron from the yolk and iron sulfide is formed at the junction between them, due to which a gray-green color appears around the yolk. The older the eggs are, the faster this happens. Long boiling times and high temperatures will also speed up this reaction.

11. Can you eat eggs with green yolks?
Yes, these eggs are quite edible. The greenish color on the yolk shell does not affect the taste of the egg and does not mean that it is spoiled. Overcooked eggs, however, have a deterioration in protein quality, so do not boil them for more than 10 minutes. To avoid turning the yolk green, use fresher eggs and refrigerate immediately after boiling.

12. Why are there blood stains in chicken eggs?
Sometimes small specks of blood can be seen in the eggs. They appear when the blood vessels of the laying hen burst and blood gets onto the yolk during separation from the ovary. Blood stains are more common in brown eggs. These blood inclusions should not be confused with the fetus. It happens that eggs have a blood ring on the yolk. This means that the embryo began to develop in the egg and the circulatory system of the chicken was formed (if the egg was stored at a high temperature), but the embryo died at an early stage of development.

13. Is it okay to eat eggs with blood stains?
Yes, these eggs are quite suitable for consumption. The droplets of blood in the egg do not pose a health hazard and do not affect the taste in any way. But the red spots on the surface of the yolk look unappetizing, so it is better to remove them with the tip of a knife before cooking. However, eggs with a blood ring, in which the embryo has already begun to form, cannot be consumed in any form.

14. In which country is the most common egg consumption?
Mexico ranks first in the world in terms of egg consumption per capita. According to Mexican experts, each inhabitant of the country eats 21.9 kg of eggs per year, which is an average of one and a half eggs per day. Mexicans eat more eggs every day than any other country. Previously, Japan was considered the world leader in egg consumption per capita. Every inhabitant of this country eats 320 eggs annually, that is, approximately one egg a day.

15. Why is the yolk kept in one position in the middle of the egg?
The white of a chicken egg consists of three layers: the outer and inner layers are liquid, and the middle layer is denser. The white around the yolk is denser than under the shell. In this layer, which is located around the yolk, elastic twisted cords are formed on both sides of the yolk between the blunt and sharp ends of the egg. It is these protein cords, the so-called grains or chalases (Chalazae), that hold the yolk in the center of the egg, but do not prevent it from turning around its axis. Chalases are formed from dense protein and can be seen on an egg poured into a saucer. Their ends float freely in the egg white - the curl on the blunt side of the egg floats in the surrounding layer of thinner protein, and the curl on the sharp side of the egg penetrates from the denser middle layer of the egg.

16. Why is protein sometimes opaque?
The cloudy white color of the protein is due to the presence of a large amount of carbon dioxide CO2 in the egg. Cloudy white is a sign of egg freshness, as carbon dioxide has not yet escaped from it. In old eggs, this element evaporates through the pores of the shell.

17. What are the yellow and greenish crystals in the egg yolk?
This is riboflavin (lactoflavin or vitamin B2) - one of the most important vitamins. Riboflavin is a yellow crystal, poorly soluble in water. Egg yolk is one of the food sources of riboflavin. 100 grams of eggs contain 0.3-0.8 mg of riboflavin (vitamin B2).

18. Can I eat raw eggs?
No, raw eggs should not be eaten, much less given to children. They can contain the causative agents of many diseases, for example, the salmonella bacteria, which cause food poisoning in humans, and sometimes severe forms of salmonellosis with complications. Raw or undercooked eggs, and meals with them (homemade mayonnaise, pudding, some sauces and creams, egg shakes) are potential sources of infection. Eating soft-boiled eggs or insufficiently fried fried eggs with liquid yolk can lead to unpleasant consequences. But hard-boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, or well-fried fried eggs will not cause salmonellosis or food poisoning. Bacteria can be found both on the shell and inside the egg, so it's important to cook it properly. Heat treatment kills germs. It should be noted that annually in large countries, more than 400,000 people become victims of egg poisoning, of which about 200 cases are fatal. In addition, raw eggs do not benefit the body, since they are much less digestible than boiled ones.

The egg is a sterile product until it is laid. And yet, just a few seconds after demolition, having such an impressive shell protection, its contents are affected by environmental microorganisms.
What's going on with him?
To begin with, we note that when laid, the egg has a body temperature of the laying hen - 41-42 ° C. Once in the external environment, it cools down to the ambient temperature within two hours, while reducing in volume. Through numerous tiny pores, of which there are more at the blunt end of the egg, due to the difference in osmotic pressure, air is drawn into the egg. Together with the contents, the tunica albuginea also contracts, due to which a stratification is formed between the latter and the shell membranes and an air chamber is created - a pug.
Together with air, household and pathogenic (pathogenic) microflora penetrates into the egg. Here she finds a fertile environment for her development and dissemination.
So the cleanliness of raw eggs is directly related to cleanliness and adequate air exchange in the house and nests.

20. What are the signs of food poisoning?
The main symptoms of foodborne toxicity are abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, unpleasant taste in the mouth, headache and dizziness, often fever, severe weakness, and in severe cases, loss of consciousness. In case of acute poisoning, after 1-2 hours the temperature rises, severe vomiting and loose stools, dizziness and weakness appear, the pulse becomes very rapid, the skin of the face turns white, the color of the lips changes, and with botulism, suffocation and respiratory arrest may occur. Therefore, when such symptoms appear, you must immediately call an ambulance.

21. How to avoid food poisoning when eating eggs?
When buying eggs, check the expiration date. It is better to buy eggs in the store - there is usually a date stamped on the shell. Make sure the eggs are not cracked or broken - they are best avoided. If the egg turns out to be stale or has an unpleasant odor, it must be discarded immediately and under no circumstances should it be consumed or given to animals, otherwise you can get severe poisoning. Fresher eggs are less likely to breed Salmonella. A natural defense mechanism inhibits their growth in eggs for 20 days. It is better not to take risks and not drink raw eggs, do not cook soft-boiled eggs or fried eggs. Recipes using raw eggs should be avoided.

Bacteria can be found both inside the eggs and on the shell, therefore, before cooking, the eggs must be thoroughly washed with hot water (temperature 80 ° C) for at least 7 seconds. The fact is that Salmonella bacteria can enter the egg from the surface of the eggshell when it breaks. In addition, bacteria very easily spread to hands, dishes, tables, other foods and objects, so be sure to wash your hands before and after touching the eggs, and after cooking, wash everything that touches the eggs. Be sure to wash your hands after breaking a raw egg for cooking. When cooking, never place raw food and then cooked food on the same plate. Even properly prepared food can be contaminated with bacteria if drops or small particles of raw food accidentally enter it. Make sure the scrambled eggs or scrambled eggs are well done and do not remain soggy. Boil well or fry semi-finished products (dumplings, cutlets and others). Cooking food until cooked is the only way to kill potentially harmful bacteria and avoid severe food poisoning.

22. What is the most famous bacteria in eggs?
It is salmonella that lives in poultry eggs, meat, milk and dairy products. Salmonellosis (or paratyphoid fever) is an acute intestinal disease caused by various types of Salmonella, a very common form of food poisoning. The main route of salmonella infection is through food. These bacteria multiply rapidly in food (especially when warm), but do not change their taste or appearance. Salmonella accumulate in animal products, tolerate drying, freezing well, and survive in water for up to 2 months. They are resistant to smoking, salting, marinades, but quickly deteriorate when boiled. The incubation period lasts from 2-6 hours to 2-3 days. Salmonellosis is characterized by damage to the gastrointestinal tract and the development of intoxication and is accompanied by diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, headache, malaise, and fever. In this case, you should immediately consult a doctor. Salmonella enteritidis is the most common bacterium in many countries.

23. How many minutes do you need to cook the eggs?
Salmonella is very resistant and die only after prolonged heat treatment. They reproduce at temperatures from +7 to + 45 ° С, and the best temperature for them is + 35-37 ° С. At temperatures below + 5 ° C, the growth of Salmonella stops. At + 70-75 ° C, salmonella die within 5-10 minutes, and instantly when boiled. Therefore, only hard-boiled eggs can be completely safe. Eggs should be boiled for 8-10 minutes from the moment the water boils, and fried eggs or omelette until dry.

24. At what temperature do egg white and yolk harden?
The protein thickens at a temperature of + 60 ° C and hardens at + 65 ° C. The yolk begins to thicken at + 65 ° C and becomes hard at + 73 ° C.

25. At what temperature should you cook and store dishes containing eggs?
When cooking, dishes containing eggs must be heated to a temperature of at least + 70 ° C in order to kill bacteria. It is also necessary to reheat food that has been stored for some time to a temperature not lower than + 70 ° C. Food should be stored at temperatures above + 60 ° C or below + 10 ° C. Cooked food should not be stored at room temperature. At + 20-40 ° С every 20 minutes the number of bacteria doubles and the risk of poisoning increases. A favorable environment for the reproduction of microbes is warm and humid. And the cold stops their growth. Therefore, after eating, the remaining food should be immediately put into the refrigerator.

26. How to store chicken eggs correctly?
Eggs should be placed in the refrigerator immediately after purchasing. It is recommended to store eggs in the coldest place of the refrigerator (closer to the back wall) separately from other products and in special packaging. Although most refrigerators have a dedicated egg compartment on the door, it is wrong to store eggs in the refrigerator door. This is the warmest place, and the refrigerator is often opened and the eggs are exposed to frequent temperature fluctuations.

27. Why is it better to store eggs in a package?
Eggshells have thousands of pores through which odors and bacteria can penetrate. Therefore, eggs should be kept in special trays and away from foods with a strong smell, so they stay fresh longer. In addition, storage in egg trays will prevent the spread of bacteria from eggs to neighboring foods.

28. What is the best way to store eggs - sharp or blunt end down?
Eggs are best placed with the pointed end down so that the yolks are centered. In this position, the eggs will be able to "breathe" and maintain their freshness longer, since there are more pores at the blunt end through which oxygen enters the egg and carbon dioxide escapes. In addition, there is an air space at the blunt end of the egg, which can contain bacteria, and when turned over to the blunt end, they float up and enter the egg.

29. Can eggs be stored in the freezer?
No, you shouldn't store eggs in the freezer - they will freeze there. The ideal temperature for storing eggs is + 4 ° C.

30. How long do eggs keep in the refrigerator?
Fresh eggs are stored in the refrigerator for 4-5 weeks from the date of production. It is not recommended to store eggs for more than 6 weeks, even in the refrigerator. Eggs are stored for a rather long time due to the fact that there is a protective film on their surface. Therefore, it is advisable to wash them immediately before cooking.

31. How long can boiled eggs be stored?
In-shell hard-boiled eggs can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 7 days, but it is best to eat them within 3 days. Boiling destroys the protective film on the shell, which helps the egg to keep longer. Dishes with eggs must be kept in the refrigerator. Egg salads are stored for 3-4 days, stuffed eggs - 2-3 days.

32. Can eggs be stored at room temperature?
You can, but better not. Eggs spoil very quickly without a refrigerator, even in one day at room temperature they lose their freshness. One day of keeping eggs at room temperature equals one week of refrigeration.

33. How much does one chicken egg weigh?
Egg weight ranges from 35 to 75 grams. The average weight of a chicken egg is 50-55 grams. This means that a dozen medium eggs can weigh 500-550 grams, and a kilogram will be about 20 eggs.

34. How much do egg white and yolk weigh separately?
The weight of the yolk is about 1/3 of the weight of the whole egg, and the weight of the protein is 2/3 of the weight of the egg. That is, on an average egg, the yolk weighs 17 grams, and the egg white weighs 34 grams. And in one kilogram there will be 59 yolks or 30 whites.

35. What determines the color of the yolk?
The color of the egg yolk - light yellow or bright orange - depends on the diet of the chicken. The carotenoids in chicken feed give the yolk a yellow color. Carotenoids are naturally occurring natural pigments of yellow, orange or red color. They give color to many plants, including vegetables and fruits. The more the chicken eats feed containing carotenoids (corn, alfalfa, grass meal), the brighter the yolk color is. However, not all carotenoids give the yolk color. For example, canthaxanthin and lutein impart a golden yellow color to the yolk, while beta-carotene does not affect color. It should be noted that the color of the yolk does not affect the quality, nutritional value and taste of the egg.

36. What does the marking on the eggs mean?
Every egg produced in a poultry farm and sold in a store must be labeled. Eggs are divided into dietary and table eggs. Eggs are considered dietary for the first 7 days after they are laid. Therefore, it is important to look at the date of manufacture. These eggs are suitable for dietary and baby food. Diet eggs after 7 days of storage are considered table eggs.

The first mark of the marking indicates the permissible shelf life:
- The letter "D" means a dietary egg, which is realized within 7 days.
- The letter "C" means a table egg, such eggs are sold within 25 days.

These periods are valid provided that the eggs are stored at temperatures between 0 ° C and + 20 ° C.

The second character in the marking indicates the category of the egg, depending on its weight:
- "B" the highest category - 75 grams or more.
- "O" selected egg - from 65 to 74.9 grams.
- "1" first category - from 55 to 64.9 grams.
- "2" second category - from 45 to 54.9 grams.
- "3" third category - from 35 to 44.9 grams.

If eggs are sold without any designation at all, you should not risk your health and buy them. Eggs of different categories differ only in weight, and their shell color may be different. In addition, some eggs come with two yolks.

37. What determines the size of a chicken egg?
The weight and size of the eggs depend on various factors. The main one is the age of the laying hen. Young chickens are more likely to lay small eggs, while older chickens lay larger eggs. At first, the weight of eggs can be 40-50 grams, and by the age of the chicken it increases to 57-65 grams. Egg size also depends on the breed and weight of the laying hen. Underweight chickens lay small eggs. Housing conditions, bird feeding, climate, season of the year and time of day for laying also affect egg size. For example, in warm weather, chickens eat less, which often leads to a decrease in egg size. Although sometimes young hens also lay large eggs or even eggs with two yolks. And it happens that more yolks are found in the egg!

38. Why do hens lay two-yolk eggs?
According to experts, eggs with two yolks are an anomaly. Two-yolk eggs are produced when two cells mature at the same time and pass through the hen's reproductive system together. Usually such eggs are laid either by young laying hens, which have not yet established reproductive cycles, or by mature birds (about one year old). The largest number of two-yolk eggs is laid by hens in the first weeks of laying. The ability of hens to lay two-yolk eggs can be inherited. However, sometimes eggs with two yolks can be a sign of bird illness. If hens have problems with ovulation, inflammation of the oviduct, then they can lay eggs with two yolks, no yolk, too small or with different defects. Diseases of the oviduct in chickens can occur due to a violation of the conditions of feeding and keeping hens, dampness and dirt in the room.

Eggs with two yolks are quite rare in nature and are not viable. They never hatch chickens. Previously, these eggs were considered non-standard and processed into egg powder. But then they began to be in demand among buyers, because they taste no different from ordinary ones, and weigh more - 70-80 grams (while selected eggs weigh 65-75 grams). Therefore, now in poultry farms, chickens are specially raised that lay eggs with two yolks. Eggs with two yolks are completely harmless and suitable for consumption.

39. How many eggs does a hen lay per year?
In one year, a laying hen lays about 220-250 eggs, and some hens lay up to 300 eggs or even more. It takes a hen approximately 24-26 hours to lay an egg. Half an hour after the hen has laid an egg, a new egg begins to form in her body. It has been noticed that white chickens lay an average of 45 eggs per year than red or dark ones.

40. What determines the egg production of chickens?
The number of eggs obtained from a chicken for a certain period of time, that is, egg production, depends on the breed of the chicken, its age, keeping conditions, nutrition, health of the bird, and also on hereditary properties and individual characteristics. For example, chickens of egg breeds lay 10-12% more eggs than meat and egg chickens and almost twice as many as chickens of meat breeds. Chickens of egg breeds begin to lay their first eggs at the age of 5-6 months. Chickens are capable of laying eggs for about 10 years. But increased egg production is observed in the first year of laying, during which hens can lay 250-300 eggs. As the bird ages, egg production decreases by 10-15% per year compared to the first year of laying. Therefore, it is economically profitable to use chickens on industrial farms only during the first year of laying, and in breeding farms - 2-3 years. Moreover, for the second or third year, only the best layers are left. Typically, a breeding flock consists of 55-60% young hens, 30-35% 2-year-olds and 10% 3-year-olds. Roosters are used up to 2 years, the most valuable - up to 3 years.

41. What does the egg white consist of?
An egg block consists of water (85%), proteins (12-13%), carbohydrates (0.7%), fats (0.3%), glucose, various enzymes, vitamins of group B. The protein contains half of the protein contained in the egg. It contains all the amino acids necessary for building protein in the human body, as well as lysozyme, a protein substance that kills and dissolves microorganisms, including putrefactive ones. But the protective properties of the protein decrease with long-term storage. The white is liquid near the shell and thicker around the yolk. Egg white is the most easily digestible and complete among the proteins found in food. It is considered a reference protein and other proteins are evaluated against it. Egg white contains approximately 17 calories.

42. What does the egg yolk consist of?
Egg yolk consists of water (50%), fat (over 30%), proteins (16%), carbohydrates (0.2%), cholesterol and minerals. However, eggs are not a fatty product, since the yolk contains more harmless unsaturated fat (70-75%), and saturated fat - about 28%. Egg yolk is rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, D, E, PP and others, and also contains phosphorus, potassium, calcium, chlorine, sulfur, iron, manganese, iodine, copper, cobalt. In addition, egg yolk contains lecithin, which is involved in metabolism and is necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system. The yolk is covered on the outside with a thin transparent membrane and consists of alternating concentric dark and light layers. The yolk contains about 60 calories, which is three times more than the protein.

43. What is the use of chicken eggs?
Eggs contain all the nutrients required for the normal functioning of the human body. It is an indispensable food product that prepares quickly and is inexpensive. Eggs perfectly combine proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Eggs are a valuable source of protein. One egg contains 12-14% of the RDA for an adult. The average chicken egg contains approximately 6.5 grams of protein (protein), as well as 5.8 grams of easily digestible fats, rich in phospholipids, which are involved in the transport of fats in the body, are included in all cell membranes. Proteins and fats of chicken eggs are well absorbed by the body. Eggs are the only product that is digestible by 97-98%. In terms of nutritional value, one chicken egg is equivalent to 200 ml of milk or 50 g of meat. For young children, this is the second most important product after breast milk. Eggs are low in calories - one medium egg contains 75 calories.

Chicken eggs are rich in vitamins, minerals and trace elements necessary in the daily human diet. Eggs contain vitamins A, D, E, H, K, PP and B vitamins. They only lack vitamin C. They also contain phosphorus, chlorine, sulfur, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, fluorine, manganese, iodine. Phosphorus is a part of all body tissues, participates in metabolism, affects the activity of the heart and kidneys, and is necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system. Calcium forms the basis of bone tissue, is contained in the skeleton and teeth, and affects blood clotting. Iron is involved in the processes of hematopoiesis, it is necessary for the formation of hemoglobin, and provides the transport of oxygen in the body. Magnesium supports normal brain function, is involved in bone formation and blood sugar regulation. Potassium regulates the acid-base balance of the blood, participates in the transmission of nerve impulses, improves the functioning of the heart and kidneys.

Eggs are a valuable source of folate, biotin, and choline, which is found in egg yolks. Folic acid (vitamin B9) normalizes the circulatory system, supports the immune system. Biotin (vitamin H) is part of the enzymes that regulate protein and fat metabolism. It improves the condition of skin, hair and nails. Choline (vitamin B4) prevents the formation of fats in the liver, lowers cholesterol levels, activates the brain, and improves memory.

44. Is it harmful to eat eggs because of their cholesterol content?
It used to be recommended to limit the amount of eggs consumed due to the presence of cholesterol in them. But after a lot of research, it turned out that the main cause of high blood cholesterol levels is eating foods high in saturated fat (mainly meat and dairy products). Eggs contain relatively little saturated fat, and egg yolk contains more healthy fats that help cells function properly. Out of 5 g of fat in an egg, harmful saturated fats contributing to the production of cholesterol are only 1.5 g. And the harm from even this insignificant amount of saturated fats is compensated by nutrients that prevent the body from assimilating cholesterol and contribute to its elimination. Choline lowers blood cholesterol, prevents the deposition of cholesterol on the walls of blood vessels. Choline is a part of the phospholipid lecithin, which is an important component of the cells of the body, helps to maintain normal cholesterol levels, prevents the development of liver cirrhosis and cardiovascular diseases, and 50% of the liver is made of lecithin. The body's daily requirement for lecithin is about 5-6 grams. Egg yolk contains about 3.5 grams of lecithin per 100 grams of product (and 100 grams of lamb, beef or peas contains only about 0.8 grams of lecithin).

45. How many eggs can you eat per day or per week?
One egg, and it is in the egg yolk, contains about 215 mg of cholesterol, and the daily intake of cholesterol is about 300 mg. Therefore, people with normal cholesterol levels can safely consume 1 egg per day. With high cholesterol levels or certain diseases (atherosclerosis, cholecystitis, liver diseases), you should limit the consumption of eggs to 3 eggs per week. When using butter, sour cream, fatty meat, sausages or nuts, it is also worth reducing the number of eggs eaten to 2-3 pieces per week. With an elevated cholesterol level, you can eat proteins, and refuse yolks, because it is they that contain cholesterol. Interestingly, it is in Japan, which is considered one of the world leaders in the consumption of chicken eggs per capita, that there is a record number of centenarians and has the lowest rate of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, the previously popular prejudice about the dangers of eggs due to their cholesterol content has long outlived its usefulness.

It is interesting! Which came before: chicken or egg?

Scientists and philosophers believe that the egg was the first, theologians argue with this. Total - 2: 1 - in favor of the egg. From the point of view of scientists, the egg appeared long before the appearance of the chicken in the process of evolution, besides, everyone knows the fact that the origin of life occurs in the egg.

From Aristotle to Darwin
The first problem "egg or chicken" (or, more precisely, "egg or bird") was raised by Aristotle. He believed that the bird and the egg appeared at the same time. More than 2 thousand years ago, Aristotle reasoned as follows: the egg could not be the first to give rise to the birds, because it must itself be laid by it, and the bird cannot be the first, since it appeared from the egg itself, it means that they appeared simultaneously (??? ).

Later this problem was widely discussed by the philosophers of Ancient Greece, including Plutarch, who formulated the question in the usual version for us - "an egg or a chicken". Medieval scholastics were also actively involved in this problem, who took the teachings of Aristotle as the basis of their philosophy - and they came to much more complicated conclusions than a simple reading of the Bible, from which the primacy of the chicken seems to follow:

“And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said: Let the water bring forth reptiles, the living soul; and let the birds fly over the earth, in the firmament of heaven. And God created the great fish, and every living creature that creeps, which the water produced, after its kind, and every bird of the feathers after its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying: be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth ”(Gen. 1: 19-22).

From the point of view of Darwin's theory, the first was the egg. Since the egg is the largest cell, and the world, according to Darwin, arose from the smallest "self-living" cells.

A philosophical view of the egg
In turn, in order to get an answer, modern philosophers tried to find a logical error in the question. The first idea is that the concepts "egg" and "chicken" themselves have an indistinct volume, and in nature there may be objects about which it is impossible to say clearly whether they are included or not included in the concepts of "eggs" or "chicken".
There are different types of eggs, from eggs to eggs, which some people may refer to as an "egg", while others may not.

In the process of evolution, there were many intermediate forms of birds, about which it is impossible to say unambiguously whether it is a chicken or not. Before the chicken, there was an intermediate form of a bird that also laid eggs, and at some point this bird was called a chicken, and its eggs were called chicken.

Another approach assumes that there is a strict solution to the paradox - a clear line between "chicken" and "non-chicken". In this case, the solution to the paradox depends on the precise definition of what is a "chicken egg". If it is “the egg that the hen laid down,” then first there was the hen, and if “the egg from which the hen will hatch,” then the first was the egg.

A beautiful solution was proposed by the British philosopher Spencer in the 19th century: "The chicken is just the way one egg produces another egg," thus eliminating one of the objects of the mystery.

The modern view of biologists
Modern biologists believe that the egg as an object arose before the chicken, since egg-laying appeared much earlier than the chicken and the bird in general (for example, in dinosaurs, Archeopteryx). That is, tens of millions of years ago, long before the appearance of birds, eggs already existed.

If we talk specifically about the chicken egg, then our modern knowledge of genetics comes to the rescue. It is known that in the process of life the genetic material remains unchanged, that is, an adult bird - the ancestor of a chicken, could not mutate into a chicken after it had hatched from an egg.
This means that the mutation that led to the emergence of a new biological species could have occurred only at the stage of the embryo - inside the egg. Thus, a chicken could hatch from an egg that was laid by a non-chicken ancestor bird. Therefore, in the evolutionary sense, the egg was the first.

However, nature always turns out to be more amazing than our modern ideas about it. In 2012, the BBC reported on a curious incident in Sri Lanka, where a hen gave birth to a chicken without laying an egg. The chicken was born healthy and fully formed, but the chicken died from internal trauma during childbirth. According to veterinarians, the fertilized egg developed into a full-fledged chicken in 21 days.
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Before the egg was associated with Christian Easter, it was a symbol of many holidays among different nations. Ancient people considered it to be a symbol of the universe and the process of the earth's spring rebirth. With the advent of Christianity, eggs began to be associated not with the awakening of nature, but with the birth of man.

Christians compared this symbol to the cave in which Christ was resurrected. Saint Augustine first described the resurrection of Christ from the dead as the emergence of a chicken from an egg. This symbol was adopted in the celebration of Christian Easter. Since then, at the end of the Easter Liturgy, the believers exchange gifts in the form of eggs, and the priest blesses them.

The legend of the appearance of the Easter egg

According to tradition, Saint Mary Magdalene (who was an aristocrat, not a harlot, as later sources say) met in Rome with the emperor after the execution and Resurrection of Jesus. During the conversation, she condemned Pilate for condemning Christ and starting an argument with Caesar about his resurrection.

She took a chicken egg from the table to demonstrate her point of view on the process of raising the Son of God from the dead. Caesar was unperturbed and replied that a mortal is capable of being resurrected as well as an egg - to become red. The egg instantly turned red in the woman's hand! According to the official legend, it was after this that Christians exchange red eggs for Easter.

Other Christian traditions

Ancient Christian legends mixed traditional beliefs and tied the egg tightly to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. One of the European legends tells of how Mary Magdalene came to the tomb to see the body of Jesus. She took with her a basket of eggs, which were to serve her as a meal. When she opened the basket in the tomb, the whitest shell of eggs suddenly played with all the colors of the rainbow.

Another legend claims that the Blessed Virgin Mary gave eggs to the soldiers guarding the cross on which Christ was slowly dying. She begged the employees to have mercy and cried. Her tears fell on the treats, painting them with bright colors.

Faberge eggs or what was in the first Easter egg?

The most famous painted Easter eggs were created by the famous jeweler Peter Carl Faberge. In 1883, the Russian Tsar, Alexander, commissioned Faberge to make a special Easter gift for his wife, Empress Maria.

Taking the gift in her palms, Maria Fyodorovna unfolded the skillfully made halves of the precious egg and saw a hidden golden yolk under them. But this was not the main intrigue yet - the secret was hidden inside the yolk. It was a multicolored chicken with ruby ​​eyes. But this is not the main surprise either. A hinge mechanism in the tail unit gave access to a miniature imperial crown set with diamonds and a chain with a ruby ​​pendant.

The queen liked this special Faberge product so much that the king immediately ordered such gifts to be made every Easter. In subsequent years, Nicholas II, son of Alexander, continued the custom. In total, 57 eggs were created, and only the overthrow of the tsarist system could interrupt this tradition.

The story of the Easter egg began in biblical times. According to legend, Mary Magdalene presented a simple egg as a gift to the Roman emperor Tiberius. At the same time she said: "Christ is Risen!" The emperor did not believe the words about the resurrection of Christ from the dead and declared that just as an egg from white cannot turn red, so the dead do not rise. Immediately after these words of the emperor, the egg presented to him turned red. This was evidence of the true resurrection of Christ.

An egg painted in the color of life and victory, as a symbol of Easter, has become an obligatory attribute since the 12th century.

The Easter egg consecrated in the temple was credited with magical properties. According to the beliefs of our ancestors, eggs laid in the red corner of the hut protected the household from diseases, and the house itself from fires. According to another belief, it was possible to extinguish the fire by running around the conflagration three times with the words “Christ is Risen!”, Holding an egg consecrated in the church. But this person must be a true righteous person.

The lighted egg, which was exchanged on Easter day with the first person who met on the street, had a special power. It was given to the patient to eat.

In the Soviet times of my childhood, we children were not particularly told about the history of the Easter egg and the traditions associated with it. Even my grandmother, who was a believer, did not tell me. In her own way, she protected her grandchildren, because she remembered very well the Stalinist times and the repressions against believers.

But Easter was alive! Our favorite pastime for Easter and all Easter week was egg rolling. The fun was as follows: on specially made trays for this, with one end raised above the ground, we rolled down, each with its own, colored egg. And below, in front of the tray, other eggs of the participants in the action were already lying on the ground. If my egg touched a neighbor's egg, he took mine. Adults took part in this skating with pleasure.

Later, as an adult, I became interested in the history of this custom and found out that by rolling eggs, people woke the Earth from winter sleep. Once upon a time for this game they chose a place where there was a small hill for the eggs to roll. Later, for convenience, they began to make trays with sides.

The custom of exchanging eggs still exists today. And in some villages they arrange "cue balls" - beating with colored eggs.

Painted eggs were called "dyed eggs", and painted eggs - "Easter eggs". Easter history eggs says that the most common method of coloring eggs in Russia has always been the method of coloring with onion peels. The color of the eggs turns out to be different depending on the cooking time and the amount of husk. To make it more saturated, folk wisdom advises first to boil onion husks for half an hour, and then boil eggs in it. So that the shell does not burst during cooking, you can put a tablespoon of salt in the water. Ready eggs are allowed to dry and rubbed with sunflower oil for shine. Although, this final chord is not required. He's not for everybody.

To obtain a beautiful yellow color, our ancestors used a decoction of birch buds. When rice appeared in Russia, it began to be used for coloring eggs "speckled". Wet eggs were rolled in dry rice, wrapped in cloth and tied with thread. At the same time, the rice was tightly attached to the egg. They were boiled as usual in onion skins or birch buds.

The story of the Easter egg continues. Today there are special souvenir inedible Easter eggs made of different materials: wood, glass, crystal, porcelain, precious metals. There are also edible, sweet chocolate.

And yet, a truly Easter egg, in my opinion, is the same chicken egg painted in onion skins, which brings us back to the time of the origin of the tradition. Everything that stands at the origins is always closer to the truth.

"Faberge eggs" is a common noun. This symbol of luxury, once sold by the Bolsheviks for a song, is now worth fabulous money. Private collectors pay millions for the right to own the famous treasures.

Origin

We can say that Carl Faberge is a hereditary jeweler. His father opened his own firm in St. Petersburg in 1842. The family came to Russia from Estonia, and the ancestors of the famous jeweler were the French Huguenots who fled to Germany from the unfriendly policy of the Sun King (Louis XIV). The workshop of Faberge-father did not do anything outstanding: brooches and diadems, generously strewn with precious stones, were in constant demand among representatives of the wealthy merchants, but that was all.

Gustav tried his best to learn and provide for his first child, so Carl Faberge studied at the most prestigious educational institutions in Europe, studied jewelry in Frankfurt, and then returned to Russia and at the age of 24 headed the family business. Some researchers claim that he was extremely gifted in jewelry, others are sure that Karl Gustavovich's outstanding talent was purely administrative. But the manager, as they would say now, he was from God.

Takeoff

When an art and industrial exhibition was taking place in Moscow in 1882, Faberge was lucky: the company's products attracted the attention of his wife. From that moment on, the fruitful cooperation of the jeweler with the monarch's family began. I must say that the emperor gave away expensive jewelry not only in kilograms - in tons. It was required to present gifts during official visits to the rulers of other countries, and skillfully made sets, boxes, jewelry and various trinkets with the Faberge brand were suitable.

Soon the company gained international recognition as well, having won the exhibition in Nuremberg (1885). The judges chose items that copy the gold jewelry of the Scythians. In the same year, the first Faberge egg was made for the Romanovs' house.

Emperor's family

The Empress favored the jeweler since 1884: she was presented with a souvenir depicting a golden basket with pearl lilies of the valley. Maria Feodorovna found the thing charming, and we can say that thanks to this, Carl Faberge opened a new direction in the company's activities. Since then, various fantasies embodied in stone, gold or bone have become his trademark.

It must be said that the famous jeweler most of all appreciated the artistic side of the issue, and not all of his products were precious. At his factories, a variety of useful little things were made, such as umbrella pens, bells, or stone seals. According to some sources, the company even made Faberge silver sets were really famous throughout Russia (and not only).

Artistic side

The jeweler introduced the fashion to use not only precious stones and metals, but also simpler materials: crystal, bone, malachite, jasper, etc. At first, the staff of the company did not have enough qualified personnel to carry out all the ideas with which Carl Faberge was overflowing. The works had to be ordered from the Ural craftsmen. But gradually many talented jewelers, engravers and artists became full-time employees of the enterprise. Among them were masters of the highest class; Faberge allowed them to put their own stamp on their works.

The employees' working day was simply slave: they had to work from seven in the morning until eleven in the evening, and on Sundays - until one in the afternoon. Surprisingly, at the same time, Carl Faberge enjoyed the favor of his subordinates: they did not leave him, did not organize competing firms, although many had such an opportunity. It must be said that the famous jeweler paid a generous salary, did not abandon old and sick workers to their fate, and did not skimp on praise.

The firm had its own recognizable style. Another feature was a variety of enamels, which delight the eye with more than 120 shades, and the technique of the so-called guilloche enamel has never been reproduced.

Imperial Collection Eggs

The most widely known and posthumous fame of Carl Faberge was due to which his company produced every year for the imperial family. The tradition was started by chance. The Tsar asked the jeweler to make a surprise gift for Her Majesty Maria Feodorovna. Faberge was given freedom of choice - this is how the first egg of the imperial collection appeared.

The first specimen was a golden egg covered with white enamel on the outside. Inside it was a yolk and a colored chicken. She, in turn, was also with a secret: inside the bird was a tiny imperial crown and a ruby ​​egg, which was later lost.

The idea was not original: similar souvenirs are kept among the exhibits of several European museums to this day (it is possible that Carl Faberge drew inspiration there).

The Empress was delighted with the gift. From that moment on, Faberge had to present a new masterpiece to the court every year, but with two conditions. First, the secret egg could only be made for the royal family. Secondly, it had to be absolutely original.

When Nicholas II ascended the throne, the tradition continued, but now Faberge created two souvenirs: for the wife of the monarch and for the dowager empress.

Bypassing the royal ban

Many years later it became known that the jeweler nevertheless circumvented the ban of his august patron: seven eggs, very similar to the originals from the royal treasury, turned out to be the property of the wife of a certain gold miner. What was to blame - the fabulous wealth of Mrs. Kelch or her lovely eyes - is not known for certain. In addition to them, there are at least eight more Faberge eggs made by private orders. The fact that this fact is not documented serves as an excellent cover for scammers.

Carl Faberge's house spent almost a year on the production of each masterpiece. The most talented artists were involved in creating the sketches, and the appearance of the future gift was kept in the strictest confidence.

In the process of making the royal surprise, Faberge did not pursue profit: in different years, Easter eggs cost the emperor different amounts and were made from different, sometimes completely inexpensive materials. So, in 1916, the monarch received a steel egg, for which four cartridges served as a stand.

The owners of the preserved treasures

They talk about 50, 52 and even 56 copies that Faberge made for the imperial family, but some of them were lost. The Bolsheviks, having come to power, not only robbed the imperial treasury, but also sold it for next to nothing. The whereabouts of only 46 of them are now known.

In 2013, a truly royal gift to the residents of St. Petersburg was made by the Russian oligarch Maxim Vekselberg. He bought the world's largest collection of eggs from the Forbes family and opened the Faberge Museum, where 9 out of 15 copies can be seen by anyone. Another 10 masterpieces are among the exhibits, 13 are in museums of the United States of America, 2 - in Switzerland and 13 more are scattered in private collections (several belong to

Another Faberge Museum is open in Baden-Baden, where eggs made in 1917 are displayed: from (intended for the Dowager Empress) and glass and crystal (for Alexandra Feodorovna). The authenticity of the latter raises some doubts, since the same was found in the storerooms of the Mineralogical Museum in Moscow, but the owner of the masterpiece, another Russian billionaire, Alexander Ivanov, assures that he is the owner of the original.

From 1885 to 1916, the court jeweler of the royal family, Carl Faberge, presented the king with one masterpiece a year. The total number of Easter eggs created by Faberge for the imperial family is 50.

Before the revolution, Easter was a favorite holiday of the people of Russia, as it coincided with the arrival of spring, warmth and the awakening of nature. At the end of the 19th century, Easter acquired universal significance: a whole branch of applied art was formed, which was engaged in the production of Easter products. Easter eggs were produced in huge quantities, and they were made from a variety of materials - glass, porcelain, wood, various ornamental materials, stones, and flowers.

Ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya once told how on Easter she was presented with a large egg made from live lilies of the valley, and a miniature precious egg was attached to it, which could be carried as a keychain. Once she was presented with a simple straw egg, inside of which were packed wonderful things from Faberge.
Faberge Imperial Easter Eggs

Carl Faberge's jewelry Easter eggs were considered the pinnacle of the Easter applied art genre; they became a kind of symbol of the era.

Tsar Alexander III gave Faberge Easter eggs to his wife Maria Feodorovna, Tsar Nicholas II presented them as gifts to his mother and his wife Alexandra Fedorovna. It is believed that the emperors presented Easter eggs produced by Faberge to other members of the royal family. Currently, only 42 surviving Faberge masterpieces are known.

The order, according to which Faberge made eggs for the king, contained the fulfillment of three conditions: egg-shaped; a surprise containing a connection with any event of the royal family and the third condition - that the work should not have a repetition.

Thus, these Easter gifts were created decorated with royal monograms or dates, some had miniature portraits of children and the emperor himself or images of royal residences, two of them contained models of ships on which the last Russian emperor sailed.

The egg was solemnly presented to the king either by Carl Faberge himself or by his son Eugene and was invariably greeted with great delight, since everyone could see the surprise hidden in the gift.

Egg technique

The eggs made were fastened with clasps and hinges so that, if necessary, they could be easily disassembled for maintenance or repair. In turn, the use of such a technique and such a design of the product removed many restrictions in the choice of materials. Faberge combined the use of precious materials with materials that were inexpensive but easy to work with.

The "shell" of the egg was enameled using the famous Faberge technique. If the egg consisted of two drop-down halves, the design was developed so that the finish carefully masked the closing edges of both halves.

The decorative overlays attached to the surface of the Easter eggs not only defined the artistic style, but also contributed to the creation of scenes that anticipated or emphasized the significance of the surprises inside. The choice of material for the manufacture of decorative finishes depended on their purpose.

In the manufacture of Easter eggs, gilded bronze and gilded silver were used as a substitute for gold, possessing both beauty and strength. Silver was also used to make frames for miniature surprise portraits, as it had the brightest surface of all materials. For purely decorative purposes, Faberge often used colored gold. By selecting the ratio of pure gold and other pure metals, he received a set of shades of different saturation.

Many Easter eggs are adorned with a continuous decorative mesh (cagework) made from a wide variety of materials.

Most of the exterior details, from frames and scallops made of gold in various shades, to leaves and stems of flowers on the Lily of the Valley Easter egg, were attached to the shell of the egg using miniature fasteners. The clasps, soldered to the back of the parts, were inserted into holes in the shells. They were then folded along the inner surface of the shell to secure the jewelry securely. While drilling the holes in the enamel shell, the egg was immersed in water to prevent the drill from overheating and damaging the enamel shell.

Surprises in Faberge eggs

Among the "surprises" hidden in many of Faberge's Easter eggs are miniature models made of precious materials, jewelry, and images of people, events and places of importance to the imperial family. Some surprises are, in fact, separate works of art that can be seen or, in some cases, set in motion, only when removed from the egg. Other secrets can be seen through the transparent shell of the egg.

The opening parts of the egg were hinged. The upper part of the egg shell served as a lid. The side sections were flaps that opened up or down depending on the location of the hinges. The part of the outer shell of the egg hiding the surprise was usually attached to spring hinges, which were designed in such a way that when a button or pawl was pressed, it would open smoothly.

There was no object, object or plant that Fabergé masters could not reproduce as a surprise for an Easter egg. The model of the Gatchina Palace with the adjacent territories, with trees, lampposts, was made of four colors of gold. The model of the monument to Peter I, made by Falcone by order of Catherine the Great, also found its embodiment in a “surprise”. Faberge Easter Egg "Gatchina Palace" is located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, The Walters Art Museum.

The simple mechanisms used in some Easter eggs have been designed specifically for each occasion. A simple gear mechanism raised and lowered three miniature portraits of Tsar Nicholas II and his eldest daughters, Olga and Tatiana, in the Lily of the Valley Easter egg. Some eggs have built-in clocks, the mechanisms of which are wound with keys, which are usually inserted into a hole in the back of the case, but there are also mechanisms that are wound with a handle. On some Easter eggs, the clock has a horizontal band with numbers rotating against a fixed mark. Inside special eggs are hidden figures of birds that appear every hour from the top of the egg.

Perhaps the most famous “surprise” is the coronation carriage made from the Easter egg “Coronation” - a miniature model 3 and 1/6 inches (8 cm) long, made of gold and enamel - an exact copy of the carriage that was used during the coronation of Nicholas II and his wife in 1896 d. "Curtains" are engraved directly on the rhinestone windows. Decorated doorknobs, smaller than a grain of rice, pivot to open and close the doors with a latch. The body of the carriage rests on straps, which are cushioned like real leather, thus, the body sways on the chassis when the crew moves.

The most ingenious secrets are set in motion by winding mechanisms. The basis for the creation of these mechanisms was the Swiss automatic machines of the 18th century; however, the model of the train in the Great Siberian Way Easter egg is an exact copy of the real locomotive and the wagons of the Trans-Siberian Express. The current model train folds section by section into a velvet-lined case inside an egg. The map of the train route and the heraldic eagle topping the entire composition also hint at the surprise hidden inside the egg.

Made in the best traditions of Faberge, the Great Siberian Way Easter egg and its “surprise” are among those works of art that delight the eye, captivate the imagination and warm the soul.

Nine eggs returned to Russia

On February 4, 2004, Sotheby's auction house announced the private sale of the Faberge Forbes collection to the Russian industrialist Viktor Vekselberg, who returned the eggs to Russia. York - This part of the collection, which consists of nine eggs, was valued at $ 90 million with an undisclosed sum and Sotheby's auctioned the private transaction on behalf of the Forbes family.

Adapted from: Faberge Imperial Easter Eggs

Faberge Easter eggs from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin (Armory)

One of the oldest and richest museums in the Moscow Kremlin - the Armory, which has a remarkable collection of monuments
arts and crafts. The collection of the national treasury includes products by Russian jewelry firms of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Among them are the works of the famous Faberge company: watches, cigarette cases, jewelry, silverware, tea and coffee sets, crystal vase frames, miniature sculptural figures made of colored semi-precious stones.

The pride of the collection is ten imperial Easter eggs with surprises, which are the pinnacle of creative inspiration and refined skill of a whole galaxy of outstanding jewelers and artists under the leadership of Carl Faberge, who at the beginning of the 20th century in Paris was recognized as Maitre - one of the best jewelers of our time.

Making exquisitely decorated Easter eggs was both a tradition and
ancient craft in Russia. Long before Faberge began to create jewelry eggs for the imperial family, eggs from precious metals and stones were made for the Russian tsars. But only Carl Faberge and his talented team of artists, jewelers, stone cutters, sculptors, modelers and miniaturists have managed to bring the art of making jewelry Easter eggs to an unparalleled and unsurpassed level of grace, craftsmanship and creative imagination.

In total, from 1885 to 1917, by order of the emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II, about 56 Easter masterpieces were created (the exact number is unknown). The eggs, made in the workshop of Mikhail Perkhin, which after his death was headed by Heinrich Wigstrom, were distinguished by unprecedented luxury, amazing imagination, unsurpassed perfection in working out details, a virtuoso combination of a variety of techniques. Never repeating themselves, they especially impressed with the surprises they contained - miniature copies of royal yachts and cruisers with the finest gear, palaces with flowerbeds of "fluffy" gold broken in front of them, monuments strewn with stones, flowers or buds.

Jewelry Easter eggs-souvenirs were a surprise not only for those to whom they were intended as a gift, but often for the emperor who ordered them. "Your Majesty will be enough" - this is the answer Faberge usually gave to the question about the plot of the next egg.

Egg with a model of the cruiser "Memory of Azov", 1891

On the armored ship "Memory of Azov", built at the Baltic Shipyard in the late 1880s, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich (future Emperor Nicholas II) traveled to the East in 1890-1891, during which he was attacked by a fanatic Japanese samurai in the city of Otsu and miraculously survived. The voyage ended in Vladivostok, where the Tsarevich and heir to the throne initiated the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The egg was presented by Emperor Alexander III to Empress Maria Feodorovna for Easter 1891.

Egg clock, 1899

The hand of the clock resembles Cupid's arrow shot from a bow; she is surrounded by torches whose flames turn into lush curls of vegetation. Together with a bouquet of lilies "sprouting" through a wreath of roses of multi-colored gold, they symbolize the virtuous flame of family love. This Easter egg, made in the form of an old French clock in the style of Louis XVI, is a kind of reified declaration of love by Nicholas II to his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

Egg with a model of a Siberian train, 1900

This Easter egg is a typical example of a memorable gift created by the firm in honor of an important historical event - the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, inspired by Emperor Alexander III and continued during the reign of Nicholas II. The road connected the European and Asian parts of Russia, the largest industrial cities with the military port of Vladivostok, which gave impetus to the intensive development of the vast Siberian outskirts.

The egg was presented by Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

Clover egg, 1902

On the openwork rim of the egg - the image of the imperial crown, the date "1902" and the monogram of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna framed with clover flowers. The surprise is lost. But the museum staff managed to find a unique archival document, from which it follows that a precious four-leafed leaf with 4 miniatures was fortified inside. Probably, on the petals of the surprise were portraits of the tsar's daughters (Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia), therefore, it was a symbol of the happy marriage of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, a symbol of the union of two loving people. It was believed that finding a four-leaf clover was a great rarity and luck. The egg is made in the Art Nouveau style with its floral motives and exquisite outlines, which perfectly suits the embodiment of an intimate family theme.

The egg was presented by Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter 1902.

Egg "Moscow Kremlin", 1904-1906



This Easter egg was made to commemorate the stay of the tsar and the tsarina in the golden-domed capital during the celebration of Easter in 1903, which was enthusiastically received by all Russian society and, in particular, by Muscovites. Performing this work of an extraordinary concept, the masters of the Faberge firm strove to create an image of the ancient Kremlin - both majestic and fabulously elegant. Before us is a kind, virtuoso variation on the theme of Kremlin architecture.

The egg was presented by Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter 1906.

Egg with a model of the Alexander Palace, 1908

The Alexander Palace was the suburban residence of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, who rarely left the walls of the palace and led a rather secluded life, for which they were called "Tsarskoye Selo hermits."

The egg was presented by Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter 1908.

Egg with yacht model "Standart", 1909

The yacht "Standart" was the favorite yacht of Nicholas II. On it, the king's family spent a lot of time in the skerries of the Gulf of Finland, until the yacht was wrecked in the coastal skerries.

The egg was presented by Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter 1909.

Egg with a model of the monument to Alexander III, 1910

The model inside the egg reproduces a monument by the sculptor P. Trubetskoy, erected on the Znamenskaya Square of St. Petersburg near the Nikolaevsky railway station according to the rescript of Nicholas II in memory of his father.

The egg was presented by Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Maria Feodorovna for Easter 1910.

Egg "300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty", 1913

The egg, made for the three hundredth anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, is decorated with eighteen miniature portraits of representatives of the reigning dynasty. Above and below, flat diamonds are set on the egg, through which the dates "1613" and "1913" are visible. A rotating steel blued globe is fixed inside the egg, on which there is twice a golden overlay image of the Northern Hemisphere: on one - the territory of Russia within the borders of 1613 is marked with colored gold, on the other - within the borders of 1913. In the decor of the egg, dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the ruling dynasty, magnificently celebrated in the empire, elements of state symbols were abundantly used.

The egg was presented by Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter 1913.

Egg with miniature on an easel, 1916

The steel egg was created during the First World War - a difficult time for both Russia and the royal family. Therefore, its appearance is strict, and the decor is official and dryish. Since the egg was created in honor of the tsar's awarding with the Order of St. George, IV degree, the gold frame of the miniature is decorated with a black and orange ribbon and a white enamel cross of this order.

The egg was presented by Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter 1916.

Who want to be a millionaire? 10/07/17. Questions and answers.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Who want to be a millionaire?"

Questions and answers:

Yuri Stoyanov and Igor Zolotovitsky

Fireproof amount: 200,000 rubles.

Questions:

1. What fate befell the house in the fairy tale of the same name?

2. What does the chorus of the song in Svetlana Druzhinina's film call for the midshipmen?

3. What button cannot be found on the remote control of a modern elevator car?

4. What expression means the same as "to walk"?

5. What is stroganin made of?

6. In which operating mode of the washing machine is centrifugal force particularly important?

7. What phrase from the movie "Aladdin's Magic Lamp" became the name of the album of the group "AuktsYon"?

8. Where do the sailors of the sailing ship take their places on the command "Whistle all up!"?

9. Which of the four portraits in the foyer of the theater on Taganka was added by Lyubimov at the insistence of the regional party committee?

10. The flag of which state is not tricolor?

11. Who can rightfully be called a hereditary sculptor?

12. What is the name of the human body model - a visual aid for future doctors?

13. What was inside the first Easter egg made by Carl Faberge?

Right answers:

1.collapsed

2.do not hang your nose

3. "Let's go!"

4. on foot

5.from salmon

7. "Everything is calm in Baghdad"

8.on the upper deck

9. Konstantin Stanislavsky

10. Albania

11. Alexandra Rukavishnikova

12.phantom

13.the golden chicken

The players did not answer 13 questions, but took away the prize of 400,000 rubles.

_____________________________________

Svetlana Zeynalova and Timur Soloviev

Fireproof amount: 200,000 rubles.

Questions:

2. Where, if you believe the catch phrase, does the road paved with good intentions lead?

3. What is used for sifting flour?

4. How to correctly continue Pushkin's line: "He made himself respect ..."?

5. What has appeared this year for the first time in the history of the Confederations Football Cup?

6. In which city is the unfinished Sagrada Familia located?

7. How does the line of the popular song end: "The leaves were falling, and the blizzard of chalk ..."?

8. What kind of creative work did Arkady Velurov do in the film "Pokrovskie Vorota"?

9, the site reports. What is considered to be the addition of the bastard plant?

10. What did the Parisians see in 1983 thanks to Pierre Cardin?

11. Who killed the huge serpent Python?

12. What rank did the 50 Swiss franc note receive in 2016?

13. What do the adherents of the cargo cult in Melanesia build from natural materials?

Right answers:

1.Profile

4. And I could not have imagined it better

5.video replays for judges

6.in Barcelona

7. Where have you been?

8.sang verses

10. play "Juno and Avos"

11. Apollo

13. runways

The players could not answer the 13th question correctly, but left with a non-combustible amount.

The story of the Easter egg began in biblical times. According to legend, Mary Magdalene presented a simple egg as a gift to the Roman emperor Tiberius. At the same time she said: "Christ is Risen!" The emperor did not believe the words about the resurrection of Christ from the dead and declared that just as an egg from white cannot turn red, so the dead do not rise. Immediately after these words of the emperor, the egg presented to him turned red. This was evidence of the true resurrection of Christ.

An egg painted in the color of life and victory, as a symbol of Easter, has become an obligatory attribute since the 12th century.

The Easter egg consecrated in the temple was credited with magical properties. According to the beliefs of our ancestors, eggs laid in the red corner of the hut protected the household from diseases, and the house itself from fires. According to another belief, it was possible to extinguish the fire by running around the conflagration three times with the words “Christ is Risen!”, Holding an egg consecrated in the church. But this person must be a true righteous person.

The lighted egg, which was exchanged on Easter day with the first person who met on the street, had a special power. It was given to the patient to eat.

In the Soviet times of my childhood, we children were not particularly told about the history of the Easter egg and the traditions associated with it. Even my grandmother, who was a believer, did not tell me. In her own way, she protected her grandchildren, because she remembered very well the Stalinist times and the repressions against believers.

But Easter was alive! Our favorite pastime for Easter and all Easter week was egg rolling. The fun was as follows: on specially made trays for this, with one end raised above the ground, we rolled down, each with its own, colored egg. And below, in front of the tray, other eggs of the participants in the action were already lying on the ground. If my egg touched a neighbor's egg, he took mine. Adults took part in this skating with pleasure.

Later, as an adult, I became interested in the history of this custom and found out that by rolling eggs, people woke the Earth from winter sleep. Once upon a time for this game they chose a place where there was a small hill for the eggs to roll. Later, for convenience, they began to make trays with sides.

The custom of exchanging eggs still exists today. And in some villages they arrange "cue balls" - beating with colored eggs.

Painted eggs were called "dyed eggs", and painted eggs - "Easter eggs". Easter history eggs says that the most common method of coloring eggs in Russia has always been the method of coloring with onion peels. The color of the eggs turns out to be different depending on the cooking time and the amount of husk. To make it more saturated, folk wisdom advises first to boil onion husks for half an hour, and then boil eggs in it. So that the shell does not burst during cooking, you can put a tablespoon of salt in the water. Ready eggs are allowed to dry and rubbed with sunflower oil for shine. Although, this final chord is not required. He's not for everybody.

To obtain a beautiful yellow color, our ancestors used a decoction of birch buds. When rice appeared in Russia, it began to be used for coloring eggs "speckled". Wet eggs were rolled in dry rice, wrapped in cloth and tied with thread. At the same time, the rice was tightly attached to the egg. They were boiled as usual in onion skins or birch buds.

The story of the Easter egg continues. Today there are special souvenir inedible Easter eggs made of different materials: wood, glass, crystal, porcelain, precious metals. There are also edible, sweet chocolate.

And yet, a truly Easter egg, in my opinion, is the same chicken egg painted in onion skins, which brings us back to the time of the origin of the tradition. Everything that stands at the origins is always closer to the truth.

Eggs are one of the most ancient types of human food.

They are included in sacred symbolism, myths, tales and sayings of most peoples of the world and in many cultures are a symbol of life.

This is a valuable food product containing almost all, except for vitamin C, essential substances for a person: vitamins A, D, E, H, K, PP and group B, phosphorus, chlorine, sulfur, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, fluorine, manganese, iodine.

At the same time, it is also a low-calorie food: there are about 75 calories in one average copy. They ideally combine proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, while one piece can contain up to 14% of the daily protein intake.
Eggs are the only type of food that is assimilated by 97%, which is why (and also due to the richest composition) yolk is one of the first to be introduced into the composition of baby food.

How to know if an egg is fresh and why an egg floats in water; whether the chicken is breathing in the egg; what is the danger of raw eggs; at what temperature does Salmonella die; how to properly cook and store chicken eggs; is it possible to store eggs in the freezer; why there are two yolks in an egg, as well as other interesting facts about eggs.

1. What does a chicken egg consist of?
The formed egg consists of white, yolk, shell and shells. In a chicken egg, 10-12% of the mass is shell, 56-61% - protein and 27-32% - yolk. In the liquid content of eggs without shells, protein accounts for about 64%, and yolk - 36%.

2. What are eggshells made of?
According to studies by Hungarian doctors, it has been proven that the shell of eggs is 90% calcium carbonate (calcium carbonate). In addition, the shell also contains magnesium (0.55%), phosphorus (0.25%), silicon (0.12%), potassium (0.08%), sodium (0.03%), copper, iron, sulfur, fluorine, aluminum, manganese, zinc, molybdenum and many other elements (27 in total). Interestingly, the composition of eggshells is very similar to the composition of human bones and teeth.

Outside, the shell is covered with a layer of dried mucus - the shell membrane, which protects against moisture evaporation from the egg and the penetration of microorganisms. Inside there is a shell membrane that does not allow protein to pass through, delays the penetration of bacteria, but allows air, moisture and ultraviolet rays to pass through. And it is followed by an elastic protein film.

3. How does a chick breathe in an egg through the shell?
The egg breathes thanks to the pores in the shell. At first glance, the shell seems to be dense, but in fact it has a porous structure that is permeable to gases. If you look at the surface of the shell with a magnifying glass, you can see many small pores through which air flows for the chick. Oxygen enters the egg through the pores, and carbon dioxide and moisture are removed. The shell of a chicken egg has about 7,500 pores! At the blunt end of the egg, there are more pores and fewer at the sharp end.

4. What is the thickness of the chicken egg shell?
The thickness of the shell of chicken eggs ranges from 0.3 to 0.4 mm, and it is not the same over the entire surface of the egg. At the sharp end of the egg, the shell is slightly thicker than at the blunt end. It is worth noting that the eggs of the same bird can have different shell thicknesses. The shell is thicker at the beginning of lay, usually in winter, and thinner from March to September. One of the reasons for the decrease in shell strength is the depletion of calcium reserves in the bird's body by the end of the laying season.

5. What determines the color of the eggshell?
The color of the eggshell depends on the breed of the laying hen. Interestingly, in most cases, chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs, and chickens with red ears lay brown eggs.

6. Which eggs are better - white or brown?
This question interests many housewives. In fact, there is no difference between brown and white eggs. The shell color of chicken eggs does not affect the nutritional value of the egg, its taste and quality. It also has nothing to do with the freshness of the eggs. However, it should be noted that brown eggs have thicker shells, but they are more likely to show blood stains. Due to their stronger shell, brown eggs last a little longer and are easier to transport without damage. Therefore, they are appreciated by poultry farmers.

7. How to distinguish fresh from stale eggs?
You need to put the egg in the water. If it is fresh, it will lie flat on the bottom of the dish. If the egg is more than one week old, then its blunt end will pop up. An egg hanging vertically in water is 2-3 weeks old, and an egg that has emerged is 6-7 weeks old.

8. Why do stale eggs float?
The buoyancy of an egg depends on its freshness. The fact is that at the blunt end of the egg, an air chamber (puga) is gradually formed between the sub-membrane and albuminous membranes. During storage, moisture evaporates from the egg through the pores, increasing the air space. Therefore, the longer the egg is stored, the more the size of the air chamber increases. That is why when buying eggs you should choose eggs with a matte surface, and not with a shiny one - this indicates the degree of their freshness. If the eggs are large but light, then they have a large air chamber and are approaching the end of their shelf life. You can shake the egg to determine the freshness of an egg in a store. If the contents dangle from side to side, such an egg is already spoiled and cannot be bought.

9. Why is it sometimes difficult to peel eggs?
It turns out that this depends on the freshness of the eggs. The contents of recently laid eggs adhere more tightly to the shell film, making fresh eggs harder to clean. And if they lie in the refrigerator for a week or two, then after boiling they can be cleaned easier and faster.

10. Why do hard-boiled eggs sometimes have a gray-green yolk?
This happens if, as a rule, a not very fresh egg is boiled for too long or if it is not cooled in time after boiling. In overcooked eggs, the yolk shell becomes greenish. This is due to the reaction of iron and sulfur, which are contained in eggs. When eggs are heated, sulfur from the protein comes into contact with iron from the yolk and iron sulfide is formed at the junction between them, due to which a gray-green color appears around the yolk. The older the eggs are, the faster this happens. Long boiling times and high temperatures will also speed up this reaction.

11. Can you eat eggs with green yolks?
Yes, these eggs are quite edible. The greenish color on the yolk shell does not affect the taste of the egg and does not mean that it is spoiled. Overcooked eggs, however, have a deterioration in protein quality, so do not boil them for more than 10 minutes. To avoid turning the yolk green, use fresher eggs and refrigerate immediately after boiling.

12. Why are there blood stains in chicken eggs?
Sometimes small specks of blood can be seen in the eggs. They appear when the blood vessels of the laying hen burst and blood gets onto the yolk during separation from the ovary. Blood stains are more common in brown eggs. These blood inclusions should not be confused with the fetus. It happens that eggs have a blood ring on the yolk. This means that the embryo began to develop in the egg and the circulatory system of the chicken was formed (if the egg was stored at a high temperature), but the embryo died at an early stage of development.

13. Is it okay to eat eggs with blood stains?
Yes, these eggs are quite suitable for consumption. The droplets of blood in the egg do not pose a health hazard and do not affect the taste in any way. But the red spots on the surface of the yolk look unappetizing, so it is better to remove them with the tip of a knife before cooking. However, eggs with a blood ring, in which the embryo has already begun to form, cannot be consumed in any form.

14. In which country is the most common egg consumption?
Mexico ranks first in the world in terms of egg consumption per capita. According to Mexican experts, each inhabitant of the country eats 21.9 kg of eggs per year, which is an average of one and a half eggs per day. Mexicans eat more eggs every day than any other country. Previously, Japan was considered the world leader in egg consumption per capita. Every inhabitant of this country eats 320 eggs annually, that is, approximately one egg a day.

15. Why is the yolk kept in one position in the middle of the egg?
The white of a chicken egg consists of three layers: the outer and inner layers are liquid, and the middle layer is denser. The white around the yolk is denser than under the shell. In this layer, which is located around the yolk, elastic twisted cords are formed on both sides of the yolk between the blunt and sharp ends of the egg. It is these protein cords, the so-called grains or chalases (Chalazae), that hold the yolk in the center of the egg, but do not prevent it from turning around its axis. Chalases are formed from dense protein and can be seen on an egg poured into a saucer. Their ends float freely in the egg white - the curl on the blunt side of the egg floats in the surrounding layer of thinner protein, and the curl on the sharp side of the egg penetrates from the denser middle layer of the egg.

16. Why is protein sometimes opaque?
The cloudy white color of the protein is due to the presence of a large amount of carbon dioxide CO2 in the egg. Cloudy white is a sign of egg freshness, as carbon dioxide has not yet escaped from it. In old eggs, this element evaporates through the pores of the shell.

17. What are the yellow and greenish crystals in the egg yolk?
This is riboflavin (lactoflavin or vitamin B2) - one of the most important vitamins. Riboflavin is a yellow crystal, poorly soluble in water. Egg yolk is one of the food sources of riboflavin. 100 grams of eggs contain 0.3-0.8 mg of riboflavin (vitamin B2).

18. Can I eat raw eggs?
No, raw eggs should not be eaten, much less given to children. They can contain the causative agents of many diseases, for example, the salmonella bacteria, which cause food poisoning in humans, and sometimes severe forms of salmonellosis with complications. Raw or undercooked eggs, and meals with them (homemade mayonnaise, pudding, some sauces and creams, egg shakes) are potential sources of infection. Eating soft-boiled eggs or insufficiently fried fried eggs with liquid yolk can lead to unpleasant consequences. But hard-boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, or well-fried fried eggs will not cause salmonellosis or food poisoning. Bacteria can be found both on the shell and inside the egg, so it's important to cook it properly. Heat treatment kills germs. It should be noted that annually in large countries, more than 400,000 people become victims of egg poisoning, of which about 200 cases are fatal. In addition, raw eggs do not benefit the body, since they are much less digestible than boiled ones.

The egg is a sterile product until it is laid. And yet, just a few seconds after demolition, having such an impressive shell protection, its contents are affected by environmental microorganisms.
What's going on with him?
To begin with, we note that when laid, the egg has a body temperature of the laying hen - 41-42 ° C. Once in the external environment, it cools down to the ambient temperature within two hours, while reducing in volume. Through numerous tiny pores, of which there are more at the blunt end of the egg, due to the difference in osmotic pressure, air is drawn into the egg. Together with the contents, the tunica albuginea also contracts, due to which a stratification is formed between the latter and the shell membranes and an air chamber is created - a pug.
Together with air, household and pathogenic (pathogenic) microflora penetrates into the egg. Here she finds a fertile environment for her development and dissemination.
So the cleanliness of raw eggs is directly related to cleanliness and adequate air exchange in the house and nests.

20. What are the signs of food poisoning?
The main symptoms of foodborne toxicity are abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, unpleasant taste in the mouth, headache and dizziness, often fever, severe weakness, and in severe cases, loss of consciousness. In case of acute poisoning, after 1-2 hours the temperature rises, severe vomiting and loose stools, dizziness and weakness appear, the pulse becomes very rapid, the skin of the face turns white, the color of the lips changes, and with botulism, suffocation and respiratory arrest may occur. Therefore, when such symptoms appear, you must immediately call an ambulance.

21. How to avoid food poisoning when eating eggs?
When buying eggs, check the expiration date. It is better to buy eggs in the store - there is usually a date stamped on the shell. Make sure the eggs are not cracked or broken - they are best avoided. If the egg turns out to be stale or has an unpleasant odor, it must be discarded immediately and under no circumstances should it be consumed or given to animals, otherwise you can get severe poisoning. Fresher eggs are less likely to breed Salmonella. A natural defense mechanism inhibits their growth in eggs for 20 days. It is better not to take risks and not drink raw eggs, do not cook soft-boiled eggs or fried eggs. Recipes using raw eggs should be avoided.

Bacteria can be found both inside the eggs and on the shell, therefore, before cooking, the eggs must be thoroughly washed with hot water (temperature 80 ° C) for at least 7 seconds. The fact is that Salmonella bacteria can enter the egg from the surface of the eggshell when it breaks. In addition, bacteria very easily spread to hands, dishes, tables, other foods and objects, so be sure to wash your hands before and after touching the eggs, and after cooking, wash everything that touches the eggs. Be sure to wash your hands after breaking a raw egg for cooking. When cooking, never place raw food and then cooked food on the same plate. Even properly prepared food can be contaminated with bacteria if drops or small particles of raw food accidentally enter it. Make sure the scrambled eggs or scrambled eggs are well done and do not remain soggy. Boil well or fry semi-finished products (dumplings, cutlets and others). Cooking food until cooked is the only way to kill potentially harmful bacteria and avoid severe food poisoning.

22. What is the most famous bacteria in eggs?
It is salmonella that lives in poultry eggs, meat, milk and dairy products. Salmonellosis (or paratyphoid fever) is an acute intestinal disease caused by various types of Salmonella, a very common form of food poisoning. The main route of salmonella infection is through food. These bacteria multiply rapidly in food (especially when warm), but do not change their taste or appearance. Salmonella accumulate in animal products, tolerate drying, freezing well, and survive in water for up to 2 months. They are resistant to smoking, salting, marinades, but quickly deteriorate when boiled. The incubation period lasts from 2-6 hours to 2-3 days. Salmonellosis is characterized by damage to the gastrointestinal tract and the development of intoxication and is accompanied by diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, headache, malaise, and fever. In this case, you should immediately consult a doctor. Salmonella enteritidis is the most common bacterium in many countries.

23. How many minutes do you need to cook the eggs?
Salmonella is very resistant and die only after prolonged heat treatment. They reproduce at temperatures from +7 to + 45 ° С, and the best temperature for them is + 35-37 ° С. At temperatures below + 5 ° C, the growth of Salmonella stops. At + 70-75 ° C, salmonella die within 5-10 minutes, and instantly when boiled. Therefore, only hard-boiled eggs can be completely safe. Eggs should be boiled for 8-10 minutes from the moment the water boils, and fried eggs or omelette until dry.

24. At what temperature do egg white and yolk harden?
The protein thickens at a temperature of + 60 ° C and hardens at + 65 ° C. The yolk begins to thicken at + 65 ° C and becomes hard at + 73 ° C.

25. At what temperature should you cook and store dishes containing eggs?
When cooking, dishes containing eggs must be heated to a temperature of at least + 70 ° C in order to kill bacteria. It is also necessary to reheat food that has been stored for some time to a temperature not lower than + 70 ° C. Food should be stored at temperatures above + 60 ° C or below + 10 ° C. Cooked food should not be stored at room temperature. At + 20-40 ° С every 20 minutes the number of bacteria doubles and the risk of poisoning increases. A favorable environment for the reproduction of microbes is warm and humid. And the cold stops their growth. Therefore, after eating, the remaining food should be immediately put into the refrigerator.

26. How to store chicken eggs correctly?
Eggs should be placed in the refrigerator immediately after purchasing. It is recommended to store eggs in the coldest place of the refrigerator (closer to the back wall) separately from other products and in special packaging. Although most refrigerators have a dedicated egg compartment on the door, it is wrong to store eggs in the refrigerator door. This is the warmest place, and the refrigerator is often opened and the eggs are exposed to frequent temperature fluctuations.

27. Why is it better to store eggs in a package?
Eggshells have thousands of pores through which odors and bacteria can penetrate. Therefore, eggs should be kept in special trays and away from foods with a strong smell, so they stay fresh longer. In addition, storage in egg trays will prevent the spread of bacteria from eggs to neighboring foods.

28. What is the best way to store eggs - sharp or blunt end down?
Eggs are best placed with the pointed end down so that the yolks are centered. In this position, the eggs will be able to "breathe" and maintain their freshness longer, since there are more pores at the blunt end through which oxygen enters the egg and carbon dioxide escapes. In addition, there is an air space at the blunt end of the egg, which can contain bacteria, and when turned over to the blunt end, they float up and enter the egg.

29. Can eggs be stored in the freezer?
No, you shouldn't store eggs in the freezer - they will freeze there. The ideal temperature for storing eggs is + 4 ° C.

30. How long do eggs keep in the refrigerator?
Fresh eggs are stored in the refrigerator for 4-5 weeks from the date of production. It is not recommended to store eggs for more than 6 weeks, even in the refrigerator. Eggs are stored for a rather long time due to the fact that there is a protective film on their surface. Therefore, it is advisable to wash them immediately before cooking.

31. How long can boiled eggs be stored?
In-shell hard-boiled eggs can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 7 days, but it is best to eat them within 3 days. Boiling destroys the protective film on the shell, which helps the egg to keep longer. Dishes with eggs must be kept in the refrigerator. Egg salads are stored for 3-4 days, stuffed eggs - 2-3 days.

32. Can eggs be stored at room temperature?
You can, but better not. Eggs spoil very quickly without a refrigerator, even in one day at room temperature they lose their freshness. One day of keeping eggs at room temperature equals one week of refrigeration.

33. How much does one chicken egg weigh?
Egg weight ranges from 35 to 75 grams. The average weight of a chicken egg is 50-55 grams. This means that a dozen medium eggs can weigh 500-550 grams, and a kilogram will be about 20 eggs.

34. How much do egg white and yolk weigh separately?
The weight of the yolk is about 1/3 of the weight of the whole egg, and the weight of the protein is 2/3 of the weight of the egg. That is, on an average egg, the yolk weighs 17 grams, and the egg white weighs 34 grams. And in one kilogram there will be 59 yolks or 30 whites.

35. What determines the color of the yolk?
The color of the egg yolk - light yellow or bright orange - depends on the diet of the chicken. The carotenoids in chicken feed give the yolk a yellow color. Carotenoids are naturally occurring natural pigments of yellow, orange or red color. They give color to many plants, including vegetables and fruits. The more the chicken eats feed containing carotenoids (corn, alfalfa, grass meal), the brighter the yolk color is. However, not all carotenoids give the yolk color. For example, canthaxanthin and lutein impart a golden yellow color to the yolk, while beta-carotene does not affect color. It should be noted that the color of the yolk does not affect the quality, nutritional value and taste of the egg.

36. What does the marking on the eggs mean?
Every egg produced in a poultry farm and sold in a store must be labeled. Eggs are divided into dietary and table eggs. Eggs are considered dietary for the first 7 days after they are laid. Therefore, it is important to look at the date of manufacture. These eggs are suitable for dietary and baby food. Diet eggs after 7 days of storage are considered table eggs.

The first mark of the marking indicates the permissible shelf life:
- The letter "D" means a dietary egg, which is realized within 7 days.
- The letter "C" means a table egg, such eggs are sold within 25 days.

These periods are valid provided that the eggs are stored at temperatures between 0 ° C and + 20 ° C.

The second character in the marking indicates the category of the egg, depending on its weight:
- "B" the highest category - 75 grams or more.
- "O" selected egg - from 65 to 74.9 grams.
- "1" first category - from 55 to 64.9 grams.
- "2" second category - from 45 to 54.9 grams.
- "3" third category - from 35 to 44.9 grams.

If eggs are sold without any designation at all, you should not risk your health and buy them. Eggs of different categories differ only in weight, and their shell color may be different. In addition, some eggs come with two yolks.

37. What determines the size of a chicken egg?
The weight and size of the eggs depend on various factors. The main one is the age of the laying hen. Young chickens are more likely to lay small eggs, while older chickens lay larger eggs. At first, the weight of eggs can be 40-50 grams, and by the age of the chicken it increases to 57-65 grams. Egg size also depends on the breed and weight of the laying hen. Underweight chickens lay small eggs. Housing conditions, bird feeding, climate, season of the year and time of day for laying also affect egg size. For example, in warm weather, chickens eat less, which often leads to a decrease in egg size. Although sometimes young hens also lay large eggs or even eggs with two yolks. And it happens that more yolks are found in the egg!

38. Why do hens lay two-yolk eggs?
According to experts, eggs with two yolks are an anomaly. Two-yolk eggs are produced when two cells mature at the same time and pass through the hen's reproductive system together. Usually such eggs are laid either by young laying hens, which have not yet established reproductive cycles, or by mature birds (about one year old). The largest number of two-yolk eggs is laid by hens in the first weeks of laying. The ability of hens to lay two-yolk eggs can be inherited. However, sometimes eggs with two yolks can be a sign of bird illness. If hens have problems with ovulation, inflammation of the oviduct, then they can lay eggs with two yolks, no yolk, too small or with different defects. Diseases of the oviduct in chickens can occur due to a violation of the conditions of feeding and keeping hens, dampness and dirt in the room.

Eggs with two yolks are quite rare in nature and are not viable. They never hatch chickens. Previously, these eggs were considered non-standard and processed into egg powder. But then they began to be in demand among buyers, because they taste no different from ordinary ones, and weigh more - 70-80 grams (while selected eggs weigh 65-75 grams). Therefore, now in poultry farms, chickens are specially raised that lay eggs with two yolks. Eggs with two yolks are completely harmless and suitable for consumption.

39. How many eggs does a hen lay per year?
In one year, a laying hen lays about 220-250 eggs, and some hens lay up to 300 eggs or even more. It takes a hen approximately 24-26 hours to lay an egg. Half an hour after the hen has laid an egg, a new egg begins to form in her body. It has been noticed that white chickens lay an average of 45 eggs per year than red or dark ones.

40. What determines the egg production of chickens?
The number of eggs obtained from a chicken for a certain period of time, that is, egg production, depends on the breed of the chicken, its age, keeping conditions, nutrition, health of the bird, and also on hereditary properties and individual characteristics. For example, chickens of egg breeds lay 10-12% more eggs than meat and egg chickens and almost twice as many as chickens of meat breeds. Chickens of egg breeds begin to lay their first eggs at the age of 5-6 months. Chickens are capable of laying eggs for about 10 years. But increased egg production is observed in the first year of laying, during which hens can lay 250-300 eggs. As the bird ages, egg production decreases by 10-15% per year compared to the first year of laying. Therefore, it is economically profitable to use chickens on industrial farms only during the first year of laying, and in breeding farms - 2-3 years. Moreover, for the second or third year, only the best layers are left. Typically, a breeding flock consists of 55-60% young hens, 30-35% 2-year-olds and 10% 3-year-olds. Roosters are used up to 2 years, the most valuable - up to 3 years.

41. What does the egg white consist of?
An egg block consists of water (85%), proteins (12-13%), carbohydrates (0.7%), fats (0.3%), glucose, various enzymes, vitamins of group B. The protein contains half of the protein contained in the egg. It contains all the amino acids necessary for building protein in the human body, as well as lysozyme, a protein substance that kills and dissolves microorganisms, including putrefactive ones. But the protective properties of the protein decrease with long-term storage. The white is liquid near the shell and thicker around the yolk. Egg white is the most easily digestible and complete among the proteins found in food. It is considered a reference protein and other proteins are evaluated against it. Egg white contains approximately 17 calories.

42. What does the egg yolk consist of?
Egg yolk consists of water (50%), fat (over 30%), proteins (16%), carbohydrates (0.2%), cholesterol and minerals. However, eggs are not a fatty product, since the yolk contains more harmless unsaturated fat (70-75%), and saturated fat - about 28%. Egg yolk is rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, D, E, PP and others, and also contains phosphorus, potassium, calcium, chlorine, sulfur, iron, manganese, iodine, copper, cobalt. In addition, egg yolk contains lecithin, which is involved in metabolism and is necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system. The yolk is covered on the outside with a thin transparent membrane and consists of alternating concentric dark and light layers. The yolk contains about 60 calories, which is three times more than the protein.

43. What is the use of chicken eggs?
Eggs contain all the nutrients required for the normal functioning of the human body. It is an indispensable food product that prepares quickly and is inexpensive. Eggs perfectly combine proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Eggs are a valuable source of protein. One egg contains 12-14% of the RDA for an adult. The average chicken egg contains approximately 6.5 grams of protein (protein), as well as 5.8 grams of easily digestible fats, rich in phospholipids, which are involved in the transport of fats in the body, are included in all cell membranes. Proteins and fats of chicken eggs are well absorbed by the body. Eggs are the only product that is digestible by 97-98%. In terms of nutritional value, one chicken egg is equivalent to 200 ml of milk or 50 g of meat. For young children, this is the second most important product after breast milk. Eggs are low in calories - one medium egg contains 75 calories.

Chicken eggs are rich in vitamins, minerals and trace elements necessary in the daily human diet. Eggs contain vitamins A, D, E, H, K, PP and B vitamins. They only lack vitamin C. They also contain phosphorus, chlorine, sulfur, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, fluorine, manganese, iodine. Phosphorus is a part of all body tissues, participates in metabolism, affects the activity of the heart and kidneys, and is necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system. Calcium forms the basis of bone tissue, is contained in the skeleton and teeth, and affects blood clotting. Iron is involved in the processes of hematopoiesis, it is necessary for the formation of hemoglobin, and provides the transport of oxygen in the body. Magnesium supports normal brain function, is involved in bone formation and blood sugar regulation. Potassium regulates the acid-base balance of the blood, participates in the transmission of nerve impulses, improves the functioning of the heart and kidneys.

Eggs are a valuable source of folate, biotin, and choline, which is found in egg yolks. Folic acid (vitamin B9) normalizes the circulatory system, supports the immune system. Biotin (vitamin H) is part of the enzymes that regulate protein and fat metabolism. It improves the condition of skin, hair and nails. Choline (vitamin B4) prevents the formation of fats in the liver, lowers cholesterol levels, activates the brain, and improves memory.

44. Is it harmful to eat eggs because of their cholesterol content?
It used to be recommended to limit the amount of eggs consumed due to the presence of cholesterol in them. But after a lot of research, it turned out that the main cause of high blood cholesterol levels is eating foods high in saturated fat (mainly meat and dairy products). Eggs contain relatively little saturated fat, and egg yolk contains more healthy fats that help cells function properly. Out of 5 g of fat in an egg, harmful saturated fats contributing to the production of cholesterol are only 1.5 g. And the harm from even this insignificant amount of saturated fats is compensated by nutrients that prevent the body from assimilating cholesterol and contribute to its elimination. Choline lowers blood cholesterol, prevents the deposition of cholesterol on the walls of blood vessels. Choline is a part of the phospholipid lecithin, which is an important component of the cells of the body, helps to maintain normal cholesterol levels, prevents the development of liver cirrhosis and cardiovascular diseases, and 50% of the liver is made of lecithin. The body's daily requirement for lecithin is about 5-6 grams. Egg yolk contains about 3.5 grams of lecithin per 100 grams of product (and 100 grams of lamb, beef or peas contains only about 0.8 grams of lecithin).

45. How many eggs can you eat per day or per week?
One egg, and it is in the egg yolk, contains about 215 mg of cholesterol, and the daily intake of cholesterol is about 300 mg. Therefore, people with normal cholesterol levels can safely consume 1 egg per day. With high cholesterol levels or certain diseases (atherosclerosis, cholecystitis, liver diseases), you should limit the consumption of eggs to 3 eggs per week. When using butter, sour cream, fatty meat, sausages or nuts, it is also worth reducing the number of eggs eaten to 2-3 pieces per week. With an elevated cholesterol level, you can eat proteins, and refuse yolks, because it is they that contain cholesterol. Interestingly, it is in Japan, which is considered one of the world leaders in the consumption of chicken eggs per capita, that there is a record number of centenarians and has the lowest rate of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, the previously popular prejudice about the dangers of eggs due to their cholesterol content has long outlived its usefulness.

It is interesting! Which came before: chicken or egg?

Scientists and philosophers believe that the egg was the first, theologians argue with this. Total - 2: 1 - in favor of the egg. From the point of view of scientists, the egg appeared long before the appearance of the chicken in the process of evolution, besides, everyone knows the fact that the origin of life occurs in the egg.

From Aristotle to Darwin
The first problem "egg or chicken" (or, more precisely, "egg or bird") was raised by Aristotle. He believed that the bird and the egg appeared at the same time. More than 2 thousand years ago, Aristotle reasoned as follows: the egg could not be the first to give rise to the birds, because it must itself be laid by it, and the bird cannot be the first, since it appeared from the egg itself, it means that they appeared simultaneously (??? ).

Later this problem was widely discussed by the philosophers of Ancient Greece, including Plutarch, who formulated the question in the usual version for us - "an egg or a chicken". Medieval scholastics were also actively involved in this problem, who took the teachings of Aristotle as the basis of their philosophy - and they came to much more complicated conclusions than a simple reading of the Bible, from which the primacy of the chicken seems to follow:

“And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said: Let the water bring forth reptiles, the living soul; and let the birds fly over the earth, in the firmament of heaven. And God created the great fish, and every living creature that creeps, which the water produced, after its kind, and every bird of the feathers after its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying: be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth ”(Gen. 1: 19-22).

From the point of view of Darwin's theory, the first was the egg. Since the egg is the largest cell, and the world, according to Darwin, arose from the smallest "self-living" cells.

A philosophical view of the egg
In turn, in order to get an answer, modern philosophers tried to find a logical error in the question. The first idea is that the concepts "egg" and "chicken" themselves have an indistinct volume, and in nature there may be objects about which it is impossible to say clearly whether they are included or not included in the concepts of "eggs" or "chicken".
There are different types of eggs, from eggs to eggs, which some people may refer to as an "egg", while others may not.

In the process of evolution, there were many intermediate forms of birds, about which it is impossible to say unambiguously whether it is a chicken or not. Before the chicken, there was an intermediate form of a bird that also laid eggs, and at some point this bird was called a chicken, and its eggs were called chicken.

Another approach assumes that there is a strict solution to the paradox - a clear line between "chicken" and "non-chicken". In this case, the solution to the paradox depends on the precise definition of what is a "chicken egg". If it is “the egg that the hen laid down,” then first there was the hen, and if “the egg from which the hen will hatch,” then the first was the egg.

A beautiful solution was proposed by the British philosopher Spencer in the 19th century: "The chicken is just the way one egg produces another egg," thus eliminating one of the objects of the mystery.

The modern view of biologists
Modern biologists believe that the egg as an object arose before the chicken, since egg-laying appeared much earlier than the chicken and the bird in general (for example, in dinosaurs, Archeopteryx). That is, tens of millions of years ago, long before the appearance of birds, eggs already existed.

If we talk specifically about the chicken egg, then our modern knowledge of genetics comes to the rescue. It is known that in the process of life the genetic material remains unchanged, that is, an adult bird - the ancestor of a chicken, could not mutate into a chicken after it had hatched from an egg.
This means that the mutation that led to the emergence of a new biological species could have occurred only at the stage of the embryo - inside the egg. Thus, a chicken could hatch from an egg that was laid by a non-chicken ancestor bird. Therefore, in the evolutionary sense, the egg was the first.

However, nature always turns out to be more amazing than our modern ideas about it. In 2012, the BBC reported on a curious incident in Sri Lanka, where a hen gave birth to a chicken without laying an egg. The chicken was born healthy and fully formed, but the chicken died from internal trauma during childbirth. According to veterinarians, the fertilized egg developed into a full-fledged chicken in 21 days.
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Before the egg was associated with Christian Easter, it was a symbol of many holidays among different nations. Ancient people considered it to be a symbol of the universe and the process of the earth's spring rebirth. With the advent of Christianity, eggs began to be associated not with the awakening of nature, but with the birth of man.

Christians compared this symbol to the cave in which Christ was resurrected. Saint Augustine first described the resurrection of Christ from the dead as the emergence of a chicken from an egg. This symbol was adopted in the celebration of Christian Easter. Since then, at the end of the Easter Liturgy, the believers exchange gifts in the form of eggs, and the priest blesses them.

The legend of the appearance of the Easter egg

According to tradition, Saint Mary Magdalene (who was an aristocrat, not a harlot, as later sources say) met in Rome with the emperor after the execution and Resurrection of Jesus. During the conversation, she condemned Pilate for condemning Christ and starting an argument with Caesar about his resurrection.

She took a chicken egg from the table to demonstrate her point of view on the process of raising the Son of God from the dead. Caesar was unperturbed and replied that a mortal is capable of being resurrected as well as an egg - to become red. The egg instantly turned red in the woman's hand! According to the official legend, it was after this that Christians exchange red eggs for Easter.

Other Christian traditions

Ancient Christian legends mixed traditional beliefs and tied the egg tightly to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. One of the European legends tells of how Mary Magdalene came to the tomb to see the body of Jesus. She took with her a basket of eggs, which were to serve her as a meal. When she opened the basket in the tomb, the whitest shell of eggs suddenly played with all the colors of the rainbow.

Another legend claims that the Blessed Virgin Mary gave eggs to the soldiers guarding the cross on which Christ was slowly dying. She begged the employees to have mercy and cried. Her tears fell on the treats, painting them with bright colors.

Faberge eggs or what was in the first Easter egg?

The most famous painted Easter eggs were created by the famous jeweler Peter Carl Faberge. In 1883, the Russian Tsar, Alexander, commissioned Faberge to make a special Easter gift for his wife, Empress Maria.

Taking the gift in her palms, Maria Fyodorovna unfolded the skillfully made halves of the precious egg and saw a hidden golden yolk under them. But this was not the main intrigue yet - the secret was hidden inside the yolk. It was a multicolored chicken with ruby ​​eyes. But this is not the main surprise either. A hinge mechanism in the tail unit gave access to a miniature imperial crown set with diamonds and a chain with a ruby ​​pendant.

The queen liked this special Faberge product so much that the king immediately ordered such gifts to be made every Easter. In subsequent years, Nicholas II, son of Alexander, continued the custom. In total, 57 eggs were created, and only the overthrow of the tsarist system could interrupt this tradition.

Masterfully painted or modest, painted with onion peels, as my grandmother once did, pasted over with pictures from the supermarket or with the initial letters “XB” drawn out of the hand, surprisingly, but the Easter egg is always at the head of the Bright holiday. How did it come to the center of attention of Christians and not only? And how does he even in the XXI century manage to push us, who cannot step without a wifa, observe ancient traditions - paint, exchange, clink glasses? And in the end, why does a whole world full of meanings and legends revolve around an ordinary egg? Want to know the whole truth about the Easter egg? Then join us!

In the beginning was the Egg

There are two parables most common among Christians, explaining how the egg is associated with Easter (and what rarely happens in such cases, these legends do not even contradict each other). According to the first, the entrance to the tomb, where the body of Jesus Christ rested, was closed by a huge stone, shaped like an egg. As the Gospel of Peter tells, on the third day after the burial of Jesus, the guards guarding the entrance to the Holy Sepulcher saw angels descending from heaven, at the appearance of which the stone rolled away by itself. A small fragment of that sacred stone has survived to this day - it is kept in the chapel of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in Jerusalem. So the egg became a symbol of the coffin, in whose depths life was born, which is destined to be born in spite of any obstacles. They say that in Poland there is even such a proverb: "Christ rose alive from the grave in the same way as a chicken hatched from an egg."

Another parable introduces us to the miracle that happened to an ordinary egg in front of the Emperor Tiberius, during whose reign Jesus Christ was crucified. After Christ's ascension to heaven, St. Mary Magdalene, Equal to the Apostles, went to preach in Rome. At that time, it was unthinkable to pay a visit to the ruler empty-handed: and if the rich brought gold, jewelry, food, then the poor people presented the emperor with the simplest, but valuable things for them, for example, poultry eggs. Mary Magdalene brought not only an egg, but also an amazing message: "Christ is Risen!" The emperor, whom historians described as a shrewd but self-willed person, doubted and said, they say, no one can rise from the dead, just as this very white egg cannot become red. And as soon as he uttered this, the egg changed its color. According to one of the versions, the amazed emperor even replied: “Indeed he is risen!”, Thus giving rise to the tradition of the Easter appeal of Christians to each other (of course, by chance, because Tiberius believed in Jupiter, Neptune and the entire host of Roman gods).

In general, the legend about the meeting of Mary Magdalene with Tiberius, according to researchers, refers to the late Middle Ages and, of course, is not supported by any evidence. Well, let it be, but it became, perhaps, the most harmonious and poetic explanation of the presence of an egg on the Easter table. However, in one of the tenth century manuscripts found in the library of the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. ! ".

But not only Christians endowed the egg with additional meanings. Man has always seen something more in him. In the folklore and beliefs of many peoples, no, no, let the egg flash - as a symbol of life, hope, purity and beginnings. For example, Brahma, the creator god in Hinduism, was born from a golden egg, from the remains of which the Universe then sprouted. In the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, there is also a place for the Shining Egg: it was carried by a heavenly goose, and it was from it that the sun god Ra appeared later. And in ancient China, it was believed that once upon a time chaos reigned everywhere, and he was imprisoned in a huge egg. Inside the egg, the ancestor Pan-gu was born by himself, who with his ax broke the shell right inside the egg and separated Yin (earth) from Yang (sky). In Buddhism, the shell of an egg also figured and was identified with the "shell of ignorance" - to get rid of it meant to be born a second time, to achieve enlightenment.

So there is no doubt, the egg - excuse the pun - the bird is important! And on Easter it is customary to emphasize this importance ...

Decorate and paint!

Easter is a holiday that believers have always treated with special respect and love, scrupulously observing the customs even with regard to the decoration of the main Easter symbol. Obviously, the true color of an Easter egg is red. And the point here is not only in the parable of the miraculous transformation of an egg in front of the speechless Emperor Tiberius. Red symbolizes the sacrificial blood of the Savior, it is the color of fertility, joy, love, the triumph of life.

In small things, people learned to work miracles with their own hands and figured out how to paint eggs in red, and in general in all kinds of colors. In the Orthodox tradition, depending on the nature of the painting, eggs were even divided into three types: Easter eggs, dyes and specks.

Krashenka is a solid color Easter egg. Orthodox Christians prepared thirteen girls for the feast, according to the number of the apostles with Jesus Christ at the head. The color of the dye became a separate message, and the work on the palette at first required ingenuity: red (decoction of onion husks or beets) - joy, yellow (birch leaves, calendula, apple bark) - sunlight, green (nettle, young rye shoots) - spring and hope, brown (oak bark, alder) - fertility, and blue-black (mallow petals) signified sorrow - these colors, contrary to the meaning of Easter as a celebration of life over death, were painted in order to leave loved ones on the graves on commemoration days.

Pysanka gave more room for imagination, but also required special skill and artistic skills. This is an Easter egg with a ritual ornament or a plot pattern applied. It is difficult to imagine that our ancestors spent time on actually jewelry work on an egg, when there was a whole load of chores on the house on Maundy Thursday (and it was customary to paint eggs on that day). And yet, the creation of Easter eggs has become a separate type of decorative folk art, a sacred ritual, the roots of which go back to pagan times.

The fact is that Easter eggs are, in fact, a talisman in which a person invested a lot of personal, and that is why it was customary to make them for themselves and loved ones, and not for sale ... Easter eggs were created for family, children, for health and fertility , military and economic. The women applied wax to the egg, cut through the designs on the solidified mass, dyed the egg, then cut it again and dyed it again. And in the end, the wax was piled up, leaving only the resulting bright pattern. Those who were richer used paper, beads, fabric, threads, fresh flowers in needlework. Easter eggs were not offered for the meal - simpler eggs were used. The Easter egg consecrated in the church was carefully kept: the egg was placed in a wicker basket and hung in the center of the hut. She not only guarded the house, walked around the field with an Easter egg to attract the harvest, threw it into the fire to avoid fires, rolled it over a sick person for healing, and even looked for treasure with her help.

By the way, in the Ukrainian city of Kolomyia there is Easter Egg Museum, the exposition of which has over 6,000 eggs. In addition to Ukrainian and Russian, French, Swedish, Canadian, Czech Easter eggs, there are ancient specimens from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Iran and other parts of the world where the egg is of special honor.

Krapanka- This is another type of egg painting, which also requires considerable skill. Its name comes from the Old Slavonic "drop": an Easter egg is painted with large colored dots, small specks, splashes or short strokes. At a time when the range of art supplies was limited, it was possible to make speckles using the same wax. First, the egg was painted in one color, wax was dripped onto it, then in some places the wax was peeled off, and the egg was repainted - and so on several times. The result is a very joyful and colorful egg, as if everything is in a glare of light.

Today, of course, painting an Easter egg has become a whole trend in needlework and, in a sense, even a gambling business. On the Internet, you can find a lot of incredible ways to create works of home art: not only banal food colors and thermal films are used, but also acrylic, decoupage products, stencils, cereals, vegetable oil to simulate streaks, floss, lace ... there, eggs are painted in the style of pop art and in the spirit of cubism, portraits of comic and cartoon characters, logos of famous brands and even QR codes appear on them. Maybe it sometimes seems that the desire to achieve originality prevailed over the original meaning of the Easter egg, but the main thing is that it is made with love!

The egg is all over the head

“A testicle is dear to the day of Christ” - this is how the Russian proverb says, reminding that what is done on time is especially valuable. Indeed, the Easter egg on Bright Sunday is used in a host of Christian and folk rituals. Without it, one might say, nowhere!

First meal. A painstakingly decorated and consecrated egg is an obligatory part of the first Passover meal, when, having come from the morning service, the faithful sat down to fast after Lent. Tasting an egg on Easter morning is a guarantee of a joyful holiday, a happy life and health.

Giving and christening. Today we continue the tradition started by Mary Magdalene. Decorated eggs become a lavish Easter gift and are exchanged as a sign of love, hospitality and the unity of the faithful. "Christ is Risen!" - they say, handing an egg to a loved one in order to hear in response: "Truly He is Risen!" After that, you need to cry out - that is, kiss three times on the cheeks. By the way, if you do everything according to the rules, then the younger member of the family should be the first to pronounce the Easter greeting.

Cue ball. It is not known where the tradition of beating eggs on Easter came from. That was the way it was. And today, don't you start your Easter day with a symbolic collision of two eggs - whose is it stronger? But the interpretation of this custom is very interesting. The first version is that good and evil are fighting among themselves: an egg, which, fortunately, did not break, stood against an obstacle, is the winner - it was kept in the house as a talisman. Another version is also quite true. In more conservative times, publicly kissing was not accepted, therefore, when congratulating each other on Easter, people christened by beating eggs. There is one more explanation: the most fortunate is the one whose egg did break, because when the shell is opened, Christ himself appears from the egg, as from the tomb. Be that as it may, cue balls are a wonderful holiday tradition that unobtrusively introduces children to the Easter story, and does not let adults get bored!

Egg rolling. In the course of the Orthodox there was another Easter fun - rolling eggs from a small slide. The meaning of the game was to accurately hit the opponents' eggs laid out under the hill - if a rolling egg hit someone lying on the ground, the player took this egg for himself. Or the victory went to the one whose egg rolled further, passing obstacles. Sometimes colored eggs and all sorts of simple prizes were laid out at the foot of the hill. The one that knocked out the rolled testicle was the prize. Experienced players knew how to throw an egg especially dexterously, for example, with a twist or so that at the moment of a collision it would turn towards the target with a sharp end and would certainly break it. Easter egg rolling is a common Christian tradition. To this day, the game is a fun part of the holiday in Germany. And even on the lawn in front of the White House in Washington, DC (it's called the White House Easter Egg Roll), they even have fun rolling eggs on Easter - but here children roll eggs, hmm, with ladles. In general, you have to try!

Easter bunny hunting

Despite the fact that the egg as an Easter attribute is ubiquitous among Christians, among Catholics the rabbit is the main symbol of Easter. It is believed that its appearance in the history of the Bright Resurrection dates back to ancient Germanic pagan traditions: the constant companion of the fertility goddess Eostra, who was honored on the day of the vernal equinox, was a rabbit, famous for its fertility. The legend was documented in Germany in the 16th century - then the first story about a rabbit was published, which on the eve of Easter laid eggs (what a surprise!) And hid them in the garden like a treasure. According to the German belief, which later spread throughout Europe, and then migrated to North America, the Easter bunny leaves a nest with colorful eggs as a gift for good kids as a gift, which must be found by all means! Sometimes the kids even "build" this hidden nest and wait for the rabbit to pay a visit (much like waiting for Santa under the tree on Christmas Eve). Images of these wonderful, generous hares holding eggs in their paws, as well as their figurines made of wood, porcelain, wax, dough and - the most desirable! - from chocolate eventually became a symbol of Catholic Easter. "Hunting" for the Easter bunny and searching for the presents in store has turned into family entertainment, which both adults and children are waiting for on Easter. Toy rabbits today are the heroes of whole plots and compositions: they study at school, play, participate in the Easter feast, in general, they set a good example with their whole appearance!

The custom of decorating the Easter tree by analogy with the Christmas tree also came from Europe - it is a symbol of the Tree of Life, the riot of spring. Trees in the courtyards or homemade bouquets of twigs are decorated with ribbons, bows, Easter eggs. The most famous and most beautiful Easter tree grows in the garden of the German Volker Kraft, in the city of Saalfeld: for 50 years he has been decorating an apple tree near his house with colored eggs - and there are already more than ten thousand of them! Volker Kraft saw the first Easter tree (Osterbaum in German) as a child, in 1945, and got fired up with the idea of ​​"growing" his own. In 1965, together with his wife Christa, he began to make the dream come true - first, 18 plastic eggs appeared on the apple tree, then, deciding that plastic jewelry was too expensive, the couple took up needlework. They began to paint the eggs by hand, and so that they were not too heavy for the tree, they blew out the contents of the egg, leaving only an elegant shell. For half a century, the collection, in the creation of which all family and friends took part, has grown so much that there is simply nowhere to store eggs. In 2015, the branches of the Easter tree, from which even from the photographs take your breath, were decorated with ten thousand eggs, among which, according to local residents, no two are alike. It's not for you to decorate the tree - the Kraft family starts decorating the tree a few weeks before Easter! Hundreds of tourists come to admire it and, inspired by the wonderful Easter tradition, spread it all over the world.

Egg Masscult

Painting, cinema, literature, design, even computer games - Easter eggs are everywhere. And we decided to hunt for them ...

In the famous novel by the Russian writer Ivan Shmelev "The Lord's Summer", the work on which lasted as much as 14 years, several chapters are devoted to Easter. All of them are permeated with some kind of heart-pinching warmth, joy and faith that does not require explanations - when you read, you want to return to childhood and wait for Bright Sunday under the aromas of Easter cakes:

“Great Saturday evening. The house is quiet, everyone lay down before matins. I make my way into the hall to see what's on the street. There are few people, they carry Easter and Easter cakes in cardboard boxes. In the hall, the wallpaper is pink - from the sun, it is setting. In the rooms there are crimson lamps, Easter ones: were they blue on Christmas? .. They put down an Easter carpet in the living room, with crimson bouquets. They removed the gray covers from the burgundy chairs. On the images there are wreaths of roses. In the hall and in the corridors there are new red "carpets". In the dining room, on the windows, there are colored eggs in baskets, crimson: tomorrow Father will confer with the people. In the front hall - green quarters with wine: bring. On downy pillows, in the dining room on the sofa - so as not to fall through! - there are huge Easter cakes, covered with pink muslin, - they are cooling down. Smells from them sweet fragrant warmth. "

“I examine the testicles given to me. Here is crystal gold, through it - everything is magical. Here - with a stretching fat worm; it has a black head, black beady eyes and a tongue of scarlet cloth. With soldiers, with ducks, carved-bone ... And now, porcelain - father. A wonderful panorama in it ... Behind the pink and blue flowers of immortelle and moss, behind a glass in a gold rim, a picture is seen in the depths: a snow-white Christ with a banner has risen from the Sepulcher. The nanny told me that if you look behind the glass for a long, long time, you will see a living angel. Tired of strict days, of bright lights and ringing, I peer through the glass. Dying in my eyes - and it seems to me, in flowers, - alive, inexplicably joyful, holy ... - God? .. Cannot be conveyed in words. I press the testicle to my chest - and the sleepy chime shakes me in my sleep. "

But Alexander Kuprin's story "Easter Eggs" (1911) turned out to be very ironic - but Easter was so successful for his protagonist ...

“Tomorrow we have Bright Resurrection, and I can see from all your little bags, rolls and cardboard boxes that you are bringing home holiday gifts: different testicles with snakes, compound testicles with rings, lambs, flowers. Well, I’ll tell you how, through one Easter egg, I lost my inheritance, family and support, and all this in my adolescent years. ” The hero of the story gave his rich, callous and hot-tempered uncle an unusual egg from a flower shop. If you write any letters on that egg with water and sprinkle with watercress seeds, then in a week good Easter words will grow on its surface in green. But by accident or by mistake of the salesman, the uncle, who in his 70 years was very proud of his black hair, got an egg with the inscription from the sprouted watercress: "I was bald." So the hero was left without an inheritance.

Of course, Easter eggs are found in religious painting. In Orthodox icon painting, Mary Magdalene, revered as a saint equal to the apostles, is rarely depicted in some scenes, mainly as a myrrh-bearing wife with a vessel of incense. But sometimes you can see her with a red Easter egg in her hands. The already familiar Easter story is captured by the Russian painter Vasily Vereshchagin in the painting "The Visit of Mary Magdalene to the Emperor Tiberius" - it adorns the wall of the Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem.

Faberge eggs in general, they have become a household term, a symbol of an expensive, refined gift. Meanwhile, Carl Faberge and his firm's jewelers created the first egg in 1885 by order of Emperor Alexander III, precisely as an Easter surprise for his wife Maria Feodorovna. It was called "Chicken" and was covered on the outside with white, under the shell, enamel, and inside, in the "yolk" of matte gold, there was a chicken made of colored gold. But the surprise did not end there - inside the chicken was a miniature copy of the imperial crown made of gold with diamonds and a chain with a ruby ​​pendant. This is a pysanka, so a pysanka! However, Carl Faberge borrowed the whole idea: at the beginning of the 18th century, European craftsmen had already made a similar egg, several of which are kept today in museum collections in Dresden, Vienna and Copenhagen. And yet Faberge so impressed the empress with his creation that he was immediately recognized as a court jeweler and received an order to create an egg every year. By the way, the work was so painstaking and delicate that one egg really took almost a whole year. This tradition continued until the reign of Nicholas II. From 1885 to 1917, 71 eggs of indescribable beauty were created, of which 52 are considered imperial.

In modern mass culture there is a metaphorical concept of "Easter eggs" - a kind of riddle, an author's hint hidden inside a work, whether it be a TV series, book, comic strip, game, or even computer software!

This is where the symbolism of the egg is revealed to its fullest! It is believed that the first "Easter egg" ("Easter Egg", Easter Egg) was deliberately used in 1979 by Warren Robinette, the programmer of the computer game "Adventure". Then the authors of the game were not officially indicated anywhere, and the vain Robinnet decided to hide the mention of himself inside the game: to get into the room with the developer's name, you had to find an invisible point in one of the parts of the maze and move it to the other end of the level. Gradually, postmodern "secrets" with the light hand of directors, programmers, animators began to appear in various genres. For fanatical and attentive viewers, readers, gamers, it has become a special adventure and pleasure to look for copyright hints. For example, in the movie Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), hieroglyphs in the form of robots from Star Wars R2D2 and C-3PO can be seen on the walls of an ancient temple! And on the cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band "is a reference to The Rolling Stones - a Shirley Temple doll with the inscription" Welcome the Rolling Stones ". By the way, a few months later, The Rolling Stones responded to their colleagues and released an album, on the cover of which the faces of the Beatles peep out of the flower bushes. Easter Eggs are hidden in Fight Club, A Clockwork Orange, The Matrix, Lost, Breaking Bad, The Simpsons, Aladdin, most computer games, uTorrent and a lot of other works. Look for yourself, because if you were good boys and girls, the Easter bunny will definitely have some surprises for you!

This big egg investigation led us to believe that the Easter egg has the miraculous power to unite nations and denominations, children and adults, chocolate lovers and adventurers, ancient traditions and modernity. The custom of christening, "clinking glasses" with eggs on Easter, of course, is widespread in Cyprus. We wish you a happy Easter and “Καλά τσουγκρίσματα! (kalA tsugrIzmata), which means "good clinking glasses"!

Text: Ekaterina Moshkina

Easter is the main holiday of Russian Orthodoxy. The tradition of giving Easter eggs in Russia arose a long time ago: ordinary people presented each other with eggs painted with beets or decoction of onion peels; those who are richer - made of porcelain, glass, bronze, jasper, agate, malachite, etc.
Carl Faberge and his firm's jewelers created the first jewelry egg for the imperial family in 1885. It was Alexander III's Easter surprise to his wife Maria Fedorovna. Egg "Chicken" becamea free interpretation of eggs made in the early 18th century in Europe. Three of them survived: in Rosenborg Castle (Copenhagen), in the Museum of Art History (Vienna) and in a private collection. In all the products mentioned, a chicken is hidden inside the egg, opening which, you can find a crown, and in it - a ring. It is believed that the emperor wanted to please his spouse with a surprise that would remind her of a well-known jewel from the Danish royal treasury.The Empress was so fascinated by the gift that Faberge, appointed as the court jeweler, was ordered to make an egg every year. Unique and with a surprise - that was the customer's condition.

The next emperor, Nicholas II, keeping his father's tradition, gave two eggs every spring - one to Maria Fedorovna, his widowed mother, and the second to his wife, Empress Alexandra Fedorovna.

It took almost a year to make one egg. First, the sketch was approved. Then a whole team of craftsmen took on the job. The names of some designers and jewelers have survived, the contribution of the master Mikhail Perkhin is especially great. Used as traditional materials (gold, silver, precious stones, enamels) and non-traditional (rock crystal, expensive types of wood).The size of some jewelry eggs significantly exceeded natural ones: the height with a stand was up to 20 cm. Traditionally, an unexpected surprise was placed inside each one.The Fabergé brand is the proof of the authenticity of the product.

There are 52 known imperial jewelry eggs. Two more eggs do not have an exact date of manufacture and data on which family member they were intended for. 46 pieces have survived to this day, the rest are considered lost. Information about them is drawn from descriptions, accounts and old photographs.
Only one egg, "Georgievskoe", left Bolshevik Russia together with its rightful owner - Empress Maria Fedorovna. In 1918 she took him to her homeland, Denmark. Some of those remaining in Petrograd disappeared into confusion, the rest, along with other imperial jewels, were transported to the new capital, to the future Kremlin's Diamond Storage.

There they were kept packed until about 1927-1930, when, in search of funds, the young Soviet republic began a sale of cultural heritage, and 14 pieces were sold. The sale was handled by an institution called the Antikvariat Office. The bulk of the treasures were acquired by Armand Hammer and Emmanuel Snowman Wartzky, British Fabergé dealers.

# 1. "Chicken" - 1885.

First jewelry egg of fifty-two Easter eggs made by Carl Faberge for the Russian imperial family. It is the simplest in design: the outside is covered with white enamel imitating the shell, inside, in the “yolk” of matte gold, there is a chicken made of colored gold, and in it is hidden a small ruby ​​crown (not preserved).

Currently, its owner is Viktor Vekselberg's Foundation "Link of Times"

No. 2. "Hen with a sapphire pendant"(lostO) - 1886 year.
It is one of the eggs lost so far; its exact design is unknown. no photographs or sketches have survived, and the descriptions are very contradictory.

The gift to Maria Feodorovna in the records of the state archive for 1886 was described as "A chicken made of gold and diamonds, taking out a sapphire egg from a basket." The sapphire egg was kept loosely in the beak of the hen. The chicken and basket, covered with hundreds of rose-cut diamonds, were made of gold. There is no documentary description left about the egg surprise, and at the moment there is no information about its whereabouts.

It still remains a mystery whether the egg was lost or is in one of the private collections.

No. 3. "Golden Egg with a Clock" (considered lost ) - 1 887 year

Gift to Maria Feodorovna from Emperor Alexander III. This egg was one of the lost, and for more than a century it was viewed only in a single photo from the 1902 exhibition. It was described as follows: "Easter golden egg with a clock, decorated with diamonds, three sapphires and a pink rose-cut diamond." And in more detail: "A gold watch from Vacheron Constantin, made in a cut egg-shaped case with diamonds, located on an exquisite three-color round gold base, decorated with a ring with a wave-like pattern. The stand has double legs, decorated with rose buds and small leaves. the stand contains three large sapphire-cabochons, from which ribbons, decorated with small diamonds, and garlands of roses and leaves, crowning the legs, extend to the sides. "

In 2011, Anna and Vicente Palmadi discovered that in New York on March 6 and 7, 1964, at the Parke Bernet Gallery, this egg was exhibited as lot number 259. This indicated that the egg exists today and is located in one of the private collections. And in 2014, the news spread around the world that a US dealer almost sent the imperial "Golden Egg with Watch" to be melted down, having bought it on the occasion for 14 thousand dollars. It was later sold to a private collection for £ 20 million.

No. 4. "Cherub and the Chariot" (lost) - 1888

Reconstruction

Gift to Maria Feodorovna from Emperor Alexander III. One of the eggs lost so far.

There is a single fuzzy photograph of an egg with blurred outlines; there is also a short description from the Russian State Historical Archives: "An angel pulling a chariot with an egg - 1,500 rubles, an angel with a clock in a golden egg - 600 rubles."

The inventory of precious items of the imperial property, compiled in 1917, contains the following entry: “A golden egg, adorned with diamonds and sapphires; with a gilded silver stand in the shape of a two-wheeled carriage. " Surprise - an angel with a clock.

It is believed that at the 1934 exhibition in New York it was put up for sale and bought by Victor and Armand Hammer. Where it is at the moment is unknown.

No. 5. "Travel bag"(lost)- 1889

Reconstruction

Gift to Maria Feodorovna from Emperor Alexander III. One of the eggs lost so far.

The egg was designed in the form of a case containing the items of a woman's toilet. Since the exact appearance of the product is not known, it is possible to rely only on information from the inventory of the imperial precious property of 1917.

It is possible that the surprise was the set of 13 pieces of the women's manicure set encrusted with diamonds, although this is not exactly certain.

Since 1922, the fate of the item is unknown. Presumably exhibited and sold at auction in 1952.

№ 6. "Danish palaces" - 1890

Gift to Maria Feodorovna from Emperor Alexander III. The egg is currently owned by the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation and has been on display at the New York Metropolitan Museum since November 22, 2011.
The outside is decorated with mauve enamel, divided by golden stripes into twelve sections. Six vertical lines and three horizontal lines are encrusted with rose cut diamonds. Emeralds are located at each intersection of the lines, and at the top of the egg is a medallion with leaves blooming around a star sapphire cabochon. On the reverse side of the egg, there are leaves with ornaments made with the help of embossing.

The egg has an opening mechanism for a surprise: a 10-panel screen made of multicolored gold with watercolors on mother-of-pearl. The panels are faceted with rounded gold rims at the top and Greek meanders at the bottom. All watercolors were made by Konstantin Kryzhitsky and dated 1889.
The miniatures depict the imperial yachts Pole Star and the Princess, Bernstorf Castle in Copenhagen, the Imperial Villa in Fredensborg Park near Fredensborg Castle, Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, Kronborg Castle in Helsingor, the cottage palace in Peterhof and St. Petersburg Palace.

In 1930, the Danish Palaces egg, along with 11 others, was chosen for sale outside the USSR, and in the same year Viktor Hammer bought it for 1,500 rubles. It was later resold several times, and in 1971 the egg was found in the collection of the deceased Matilda Geddings Gray. Since 1972, "Danish Palaces" have been owned by the foundation named after her and are exhibited in museums.

№ 7. "Memory of Azov" - 1891

Gift to Maria Feodorovna from Alexander III. It is currently in the Armory in Moscow and is one of the few Faberge eggs that have not left Russia.
Carved out of a single piece of heliotrope (a dark green mineral of the quartz group with bright red blotches), the Memory of Azov egg is made in the rococo style inherent in the era of Louis XV. It is covered with openwork gold ornamentation, inlaid with diamonds and golden flowers. Wide gold border at the junction of the two halves of the egg

decorated with a ruby ​​and two diamonds. The interior is finished with green velvet.

The surprise of the egg is a miniature model of the cruiser of the Russian Imperial Navy "Memory of Azov", made of red and yellow gold and platinum with small diamonds as glasses.

The model is mounted on an aquamarine plate that simulates water. The name of the ship is engraved on the stern. The stand has a gold frame with a loop for easy extraction from the egg.

The egg is dedicated to the journey of Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich and Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich on the cruiser Pamyat Azov across the Far East from October 1890 to August 1891. The trip took place on the advice of his parents in order to expand the horizons of the future Tsar and his brother, but had unpleasant consequences. At that time, Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich suffered from tuberculosis, and prolonged swimming aggravated the disease. An attempt was made on Tsarevich Nicholas in Japan, as a result of which he received serious head injuries from saber blows. Although the egg was presented to the empress in April, even before this incident, apparently, it was never included in the number of her favorite jewelry eggs.

No. 8. "Diamond Mesh" - 1892

Gift to Maria Feodorovna from Alexander III. The egg is currently in a private collection in London.

The shell of the egg is cut from a translucent apple-green bovenite (not to be confused with bavenite!), A type of serpentine. Externally, the material of the product resembles high quality jade. Processing - cabochon. The egg is braided with a diagonal net of platinum stripes encrusted with rose-cut diamonds on gold bases. Above and below, at the junction of the strips, there are two large diamonds. The interior is finished in white satin, there is room for a surprise. The base was a round, pale green jadeite slab on which were three cherubs supporting an egg. It was believed that they personified the three sons of the emperor: Nicholas (heir to the throne), George and Michael. At the moment, the foundation is lost.
A surprise is also lost - a figurine of an elephant with a winding key. The elephant with a small golden tower is described as made of ivory, partially covered with enamel, and inlaid with rose-cut diamonds. The sides are decorated with gold designs in the shape of two crosses, each with five white gems (?). The same were on the elephant's forehead, and on the tusks, trunk and harness - small diamonds. The elephant deliberately bore a resemblance to the elephant depicted on the royal coat of arms of Denmark, as a memory from the childhood of Maria Fedorovna.

In the 1920s, the egg was sold through Antiques to Michel Norman of Australian Pearl. Since then, it has been resold several times.

№ 9. "Caucasus" - 1893

Gift to Maria Feodorovna from Alexander III.
The egg is now owned by the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation and has been on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York since November 2011.

The Late Louis XV style souvenir egg has four oval "windows", each of which is closed by an oval door with a pearl border. On the outside, in the center of each door, there is a diamond wreath with a number inside. Together they make up the number 1893. Flanked by each window and door are golden wands with diamond stripes and pearls at the ends. Behind each opening door there are ivory miniatures depicting views of the Abastumani Palace in the Caucasus, in which the Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich spent most of his life. The miniatures were painted by the court miniaturist Konstantin Kryzhitsky.

On the top of the egg, under a large "portrait" diamond, there is a miniature portrait of Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich. The portrait diamond is surrounded by rose-cut diamonds and a laurel wreath. At the base of the egg there is a smaller portrait diamond. In the upper and lower quarters of the egg there is a pink garland of colored gold tied with platinum bows studded with diamonds. The egg is placed on a stand with twisted gold legs imitating a bent tree.

The egg surprise was lost, and there is no documentary evidence of it.
In 1930, it was sold by Antiques to Armand Hammer from the New York Hammer Gallery, then until 1972 it was in the collection of Matilda Geddings Gray.

No. 10. "Renaissance" -1894

The last Faberge Easter egg, presented to Alexandra Feodorovna by Emperor Alexander III (he died in October 1894). The current owner is Viktor Vekselberg's Link of Times Foundation.
An egg-shaped box made of transparent blue-milky agate lies horizontally on an oval gold base.

The upper part of the egg, opening on a gold hinge, is decorated with an overlaid trellis lattice made of white enamel with diamond and ruby ​​colors at the intersections. The date "1894" is laid out in diamonds in an oval of strawberry-red transparent enamel, framed by stylized shells of green enamel and figures of red and white enamel.

The lower rim of the lid is decorated with shells of transparent strawberry-red enamel in between curls of white enamel with diamonds.
The edges of the valves of the inner side of the egg, visible when the lid is open, are trimmed with a vegetable border on a white enamel background. The lower valve is bordered from above by a strip of strawberry-red enamel and enclosed from below by belts of leaves with berries and blue shells of "buckles". On both sides of the casket there are handles in the form of golden sculpted lion heads with rings in their teeth. The hammered base is finished with leaves of transparent green enamel, alternating with the colors of red enamel.
The surprise was lost, but there is speculation that it was a piece of pearl jewelry. According to another version, expressed by Christopher Forbes, it is believed that the surprise was the Resurrection egg, which ideally fits the size of the Renaissance egg and has a similar design and color scheme. They were also shown together in 1902.

Around 1927, through the Antikvariat office, the egg was sold to Armand Hammer in the New York Gallery for 1,500 rubles, then it was resold several times.

No. 11. "Clock with a blue snake" - 1895

The first of the Faberge Easter eggs presented by Nicholas II to his mother, Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna. At the moment it belongs to the Prince of Monaco Albert II.

The egg is placed on a gold stand decorated with patterns in opal white enamel. The three panels of the stand are covered with gold in four colors, symbolizing arts and sciences.

Golden snake inlaid
diamonds, wraps around the stand, connecting it to the egg, and rises to its middle.
The snake's head and tongue indicate the current hour, displayed in Roman numerals on a rotating white panel. Most of the egg is covered in translucent blue enamel and gold stripes with diamonds, and there are clock chime elements on the bottom and top of the egg. On each side of the egg, there are golden handles in the form of sculptural arches in the shape of the letter "C", attached near the top and in the middle of the egg. One of the interesting features is that the "Egg-clock with a blue snake" does not contain sapphires, and in the Russian historical archives about the inventory of the confiscated imperial property for 1917 and in the documents of the transfer of the collection from the Anichkov Palace for 1922 to the Council of People's Commissars it is indicated that items contain sapphires.
The egg contains no surprise as is the business hours. Sold to Michelle Norman of Australian Pearl in 1927. Having changed several owners, in 1974 it was presented to the Prince of Monaco Rainier III for the 25th anniversary of his rule on the throne. The prince gave the egg to his wife, Princess Grace.

It became one of the princess's favorite pieces of jewelry and was kept on a table in one of her rooms. After Grace's death, all premises were sealed and the egg was not displayed in public. Then, after the death of Rainier III in 2005, the new prince of Monaco, Albert II, inherited the egg. Since 2008, the egg has been shown to the general public at exhibitions.

№ 12. "Rosebud" - 1895

Created by Mikhail Perkhin under the leadership of Carl Faberge for Nicholas II. It became the first egg given by Nikolai to Alexandra Fedorovna.
This Easter egg is made in the neoclassical style. It opens like a bonbonniere, revealing a rosebud hidden inside, covered with yellow enamel. The petals of the bud expand to reveal a gold crown set with diamonds and rubies and a star cabochon ruby ​​pendant. Both of these last surprises are lost.
The crown underlined the new title of Alexandra Feodorovna as Empress of the Russian Empire. Her native Darmstadt was famous for its rose garden, especially yellow roses. The surprise has become a pleasant memory of the homeland.

In 1927, the egg was sold to Emmanuel Snowman of the Wartski jewelry house. It changed owners several times, and since 2004 it belongs to the Viktor Vekselberg Foundation.

№ 13. "Portraits of Alexander III (Twelve Monograms)" "- 1896

Created by order of Emperor Nicholas II and presented to his mother, Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna, for Easter in memory of his father, Alexander III. It was the first of four imperial eggs made in memory of Alexander III. Currently owned by the Hillwood Museum.
This jewelry egg is considered one of the most beautiful creations of the Fabergé company. It consists of 6 panels covered with dark blue enamel guilloché ornaments. They are cut with relief hoops inlaid with rose-cut diamonds. At the intersection of the hoops, larger diamonds are set, located on the gold platforms.

On each panel there are monograms MF (Maria Fedorovna) and AIII (Alexander III), lined with diamonds, over which there is an imperial crown of diamonds. In the upper half there are monograms MF, in the lower half - AIII. The upper and lower parts are dominated by large diamonds set on round gold platforms. When the egg is opened, the interior velvet trim is visible. A surprise was the miniature portraits of Alexander III on a gold stand, but they were lost during the expropriation.

In the 1920s, egg # 13 was sold to a Parisian jeweler, and later it went to the antiques collector Marjorie Merriweather Post, who bequeathed her collection to the Hillwood Museum on her estate.

No. 14. "Rotating Miniatures" - 1896

This egg was created by order of Nicholas II for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. It is currently in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The outer shell of rock crystal is bordered by a thin gold strip covered with emerald green enamel, inlaid with diamonds. The egg is crowned with a 27-carat Siberian emerald set on a gold base covered with emerald green enamel. This cabochon emerald is one of the largest gemstones used by Faberge in the Imperial Egg Series.
The leg of the egg sits on a rock crystal plinth and consists of a colorfully painted, gold enamelled double spheroid surrounded by two rose-cut diamond circles. It is also decorated with monograms of the Queen - Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt before her marriage and later Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia.

Each monogram is topped with a diamond crown of the respective royal house. These monograms form a continuous pattern around the base of the jewelery egg.
Inside the rock crystal egg is a golden axis supporting twelve miniature designs. They depict palaces and residences that were significant to the young empress. Each of these places is memorable for Nicholas and Alexandra, as the first moments of their acquaintance before the wedding in 1894.
The moment the cabochon emerald is released from the top of the egg, a mechanism is set in motion, rotating the miniatures attached to the central golden axis. A hook is lowered down, which turns them like the pages of a book, so that you can observe two miniatures at the same time. Each of them has a gold frame topped with an emerald.

In 1930, the egg was sold through the Antiques office to the Victor Hammer Gallery. Since 1945, it has been in the possession of Lillian Thomas Pratt, wife of General Motors President John Pratt. After her death in 1947, the egg was bequeathed to the property of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, where it still remains in the open part of the museum's exposition.

No. 15. "Pink-purple egg with 3 miniatures" (lost) -1897

Created by order of Emperor Nicholas II for his mother, Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna. The egg is one of the missing Faberge jewelry eggs and its whereabouts are currently unknown. However, Viktor Vekselbeg's collection contains his surprise - a frame with 3 miniatures in the shape of a heart.
The exact design of the egg is unknown. On the invoice issued by Faberge, it is described as
"Pink-lilac enamel egg with 3 miniatures".
The surprise frame was made in the neoclassical style popular at that time. It has the shape of a heart, bordered with diamonds, covered with strawberry-red enamel on a guilloché background, with the date "1897" inlaid with diamonds. The frame rests on a Louis XVI style hexagonal leg covered with white enamel painted in the form of a grapevine twisting in a spiral.
The leg is set on a domed, stepped base, covered with strawberry-red enamel and decorated with golden wreaths of laurel leaves, diamonds engraved with golden acanthus leaves, painted laurel sprigs, and four large pearls.
When you press the stem, the heart opens, turning into a clover trefoil, covered with emerald green enamel on a guilloche background, with a pattern in the form of diverging sun rays. Each petal contains a miniature portrait in a diamond frame: in one - Emperor Nicholas II, in the second - his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, in the third - Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna in infancy. Clover petals are closed by pressing one of the pearls fixed on the base.

In the inventories of the confiscated imperial property of 1917 and 1922, the egg is not listed. Presumably, it was taken by Maria Fedorovna before 1917. In 1978, a surprise egg was auctioned off by Christie's to the collection of Forbes magazine. In 2004, he, along with other jewelry owned by the Forbes family, was bought by Viktor Vekselberg's "Link of Times" foundation.

№ 16. "Coronation" - 1897

The most famous and one of the most exquisite Fabergé Easter masterpieces is dedicated to the anniversary of the coronation of Nicholas II on May 14, 1896. Presented by the Emperor for Easter to his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna. At the moment it is owned by Viktor Vekselberg's "Link of Times" fund.
Through the greenish-yellow enamel in radiant rhombuses, the golden guilloche surface of the egg, enclosed by an overlaid trellis lattice made of green gold laurel leaves, reproduces the fabric of the Empress's dress at the coronation ceremony. At the top, it closes with a wreath of diamonds. At the crossings of the lattice there are two-headed eagles made of black enamel with diamonds on shields and blue enamel on ribbons. On top of the egg, under a large portrait diamond, there is a monogram of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, studded with diamonds and rose-cut rubies on a white enamel background. The base of the egg is made in the form of a flower cup with fine engraving of leaves and the date "1897" located in the middle in black on white enamel, visible through a large diamond in a round frame of small ones.

Surprise is a tiny copy of the golden carriage of Catherine the Great in 1793, used by the Romanov family to transport the royal family during the coronation week. The master of the Faberge firm, Georg Stein, wrote in his memoirs that he worked on the creation of this miracle of jewelry art for more than 15 months, 16 hours a day.
Not only the appearance of the carriage, but also all its equipment has been recreated with exceptional accuracy. The carriage is equipped with springs, has a turntable, on both sides there are small opening doors, a tiny step is thrown from the depths of the carriage. Inside there are armchairs, a canopy and a ring fortified under the ceiling, on which a large diamond in the form of an Easter egg was once suspended. Most likely, the Empress took it off and attached it to her Easter necklace.

In 1927, Emmanuel Snowman bought the egg through Antiques for the Wartski gallery in London. The egg changed owners several times; now it is owned by the Viktor Vekselberg Foundation.

No. 17. "Pelican" - 1898

Created by order of Nicholas II for his mother, Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna. Currently owned by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The egg is made of red gold, diamonds, pearls, gray, pink, opal and blue enamel with watercolors on ivory, and its base is made of multicolored gold.

This egg is one of the few that does not have an enamel coating on its entire surface. It is covered in engraved Empire style red gold and topped with a matte gray, blue and pink enamel pelican. The pelican, a symbol of self-sacrifice and mercy, has wings inlaid with diamonds. He feeds his children in a golden nest, which symbolizes maternal care and love. The egg is engraved with classical motifs, memorable dates from 1797 to 1897 and an inscription on both sides: "Visit this grape and you will live."
The egg is placed on a round gold stand consisting of two rings, decorated with ornaments and having four legs, crowned with the heads of eagles with imperial crowns and resting on animal paws. Also, it has a red velvet cover, which is found only once among the entire series of imperial eggs.

The Pelican egg is a commemorative sign of the 100-year (1797 - 1897) patronage of charitable institutions by Russian empresses. Institutions founded primarily to educate the daughters of nobles are depicted in eight oval panels with pearl frames. They can be seen after the transformation of the egg into 8 parts, forming a screen. The miniatures were painted on ivory by the court painter Johannes Zengraf. The depicted institutions are listed on the reverse side of the miniatures. The "ninth panel" serves solely as a stand for an open egg.

In 1930, Egg No. 17 was sold by Antiques to Armand Hammer from New York. It was acquired between 1936 and 1938 by Lillian Thomas Pratt, wife of General Motors President John Pratt. After her death in 1947, by will, the egg was transferred to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, where it still remains in the open part of the museum's exposition.

Let's admire this work of art on video.

No. 18. "Lilies of the Valley" - 1898

Another Easter egg for Alexandra Feodorovna commissioned by Nicholas II. It became one of the Empress's favorites.
The egg is made of translucent pink enamel with a guilloché surface, and is set on a gold stand with four legs. Lilies of the valley made of green enamel, gold and pearls are fixed on it.

A surprise appears when you press the side pearls: three medallions slide out from the top. The upper medallion, crowned with a crown with diamonds and a ruby-cabochon, depicts Nicholas II in military uniform, on the left - the Grand Duchess Olga, on the right - Tatiana. Materials used: gold, enamel, diamonds, rubies, pearls, rock crystal, ivory. Height 20 cm unfolded.

In 1927, the egg was sold to E. Snowman, after that it changed owners several times, and in 2004 it was acquired by Viktor Vekselberg at Sotheby's in New York.

No. 19. "Pansies" - 1899




Nicholas II's gift to his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. The product was previously known as the "Spinach Jade Egg". The egg is carved from a single piece of jade and is held in place by a stand in the form of gilded silver leaves with diamond veins, twisted into a bun. Five stems with flowers and pansy buds, made of gold, colored enamel and diamonds, rise above the leaves.

The top of the egg opens to reveal a surprise - a heart-shaped folding easel with eleven medallions. The oval lids of the medallions are made of enamel strawberry guilloche and decorated with personal monograms of the members of the imperial family. The medallions are interconnected by a diamond vignette forming the letter M. The easel is crowned with a wreath with the six-pointed Star of Bethlehem, in the center of which a large diamond shines, the date below is 1899.

Surprise materials: gold, diamonds, pearls, strawberry, white and mother-of-pearl enamel. Height - 14.6 cm.

When you press the button, the medallions open, showing portraits of all members of the royal family. Vertical portraits of the first row: Tsarevich Georgy Alexandrovich, the Tsar's younger brother, and Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, husband of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, the Tsar's sister. Second vertical row: Tsar Nicholas II, Princess Irina, daughter of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna. Third vertical row: Daughters of Nicholas II, Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, the Tsar's younger brother. The fourth vertical row: Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and Prince Andrei Alexandrovich, brother of Princess Irina. Fifth vertical row: Grand Duchesses Olga and Xenia Alexandrovna, the tsar's sisters.

In 1930, the office "Antiques" sold the egg at an auction in New York, since then it has been in private collections. The current location is New Orleans.

No. 20. "Bouquet of lilies" - 1899

The egg clock (the common name "Lilies of the Madonna") was created by order of Nicholas II as a gift for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Materials: multicolored gold, platinum, diamonds, onyx, white and yellow translucent enamels, opaque white enamel. Height 27 cm.

The egg looks like an old French clock from the times of Louis XVI. An egg-shaped clock and a rectangular stand are decorated with transparent yellow enamel on a guilloché background and an applied pattern of colored gold. The watch is crowned with a bouquet of snow-white lilies (lilies of the Madonna) in a rosette of roses. The lilies are carved from onyx, the pistils end with three small diamonds, the leaves and stems are tinted gold. Rotating dial with 12 diamond-set Roman numerals, covered with white enamel. The hand of the clock is made in the shape of a Cupid's arrow shot from a bow. The date on the pedestal is made of diamonds - 1899. The clockwork was wound up with a golden key.

In the language of flowers, lilies symbolize purity and innocence, roses - love. Cupid's torches (near the hour hand), the flame of which is depicted as a floral ornament around the circumference of the clock, symbolizes family love.

The surprise is lost, in early photographs it is captured as a ruby ​​pendant with diamonds.

At the moment, the egg is in the Armory in Moscow and is one of the few imperial Easter eggs that have not left Russia.

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