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New Life in a Cracked Egg: Lebanese Easter Celebrations in Northern Maine
| Article
# : |
10113 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1993 |
3,037 Words |
| Author
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Kathryn J. Olmstead
Kathryn J. Olmstead, a native of Battle Creek, Michigan, moved
to Aroostook County, Maine, in 1974, where she restored an
abandoned farmhouse in Westmanland (pop. 52). She currently
teaches journalism at the University of Maine at Orono and
copublishes a quarterly magazine about Aroostook called Echoes. |
It is Easter morning in the home of a Lebanese family in Caribou, Maine. The children awake early because the first one to whisper in their father's ear the Arabic words for "the lord is risen" gets to empty father's pockets.
"Al Maseeh Emm" (the Messiah is risen) is the phonetic translation, and the expression is repeated throughout the day. Later in the morning, phones begin to ring in Lebanese homes. Everyone wants to be the first to say the words to another family member or friend and share the joy of the resurrection.
A table is set with the best china, silver, lines, and traditional Easter foods for a day of celebration that revolves around the custom of cracking eggs. Brought from old Syria by the parents and grand parents of Lebanese families in northern Maine, egg cracking symbolizes the resurrection. The shell represents the tomb in which the body of Christ was sealed after the Crucifixion. The egg contains new life, and hitting eggs together signifies the breaking open of the tomb. Eating the eggs symbolizes breaking the fast. It is important to break all the eggs, in order to show that Christ has conquered death and risen, granting new life to all who believe in him.
Long preparations for Easter Sunday culminate on Easter eve. Eggs are boiled in water with onion skins, turning the shells a deep brownish red. A bowl of finished eggs, their number depending on the size of the family, will occupy a prominent place on the table, surrounded by cheeses, breads, and pastries that been made specially for Easter.
Geneva Meelan Wakem of Caribou remembers how mother got together with the woman of other Lebanese families in Limestone, Maine, to make the pastries. She would make the phyllo dough and take it to the others' homes, where they would roll it out until it was "just like silk." Then they would toss it in the air until it was thin they couldn't toss it anymore.
"It was beautiful to watch," Wakern recalls, imitating their gestures. "It was so graceful."
After tossing, the dough was stretched over cloth-covered pillows that had been laid on ironing boards. From this thinner-than-paper dough the women made mihilie, or what the Greeks call baklava layering the buttered dough with a filling of crushed walnuts flavored with orange blossom water. After the hot baked mihilie was removed from the oven, a flavored sugar was poured on top, and
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