Don't know from German culture (Kinder, Küche, Kirche!) but I do know a bit about keeping chickens.
To wit: you need to get any broken eggs away from them, because they quickly develop a taste for fresh eggs.
From my kids & our chickens, I would say that the little boy is trying to defend the remaining eggs from a rooster who has gotten a taste of The Other Good Thing.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
It is just the symbolism associated with easter: life - eggs and death - broken egg in connection to the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is also said that the egg is a symbol for the grave, more in particular the grave in Jerusalem from which Jesus rose.
I interpretted it differently: that the RED rooster was a Soviet fighter or bomber; the WHITE egg was an Aryan civilian, and der kleine kinder was the flak unit defending further intrusions by the intruder: or Flak the Flock
Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
I'm going to go with JanSimon on this. David, don't I hear your mother calling?
Here's possibly pertinent information from a Scientific American blog:
"Hinduism makes a connection between the content of the egg and the structure of the universe: for example, the shell represents the heavens, the white the air, and the yolk the earth. The Chandogya Upanishads describes the act of creation in terms of the breaking of an egg:
The Sun is Brahma—this is the teaching. A further explanation thereof (is as follows). In the beginning this world was merely non-being. It was existent. It developed. It turned into an egg. It lay for the period of a year. It was split asunder. One of the two egg-shell parts became silver, one gold. That which was of silver is this earth. That which was of gold is the sky … Now what was born therefrom is yonder sun.
In the Zoroastrian religion, the creation myth tells of an ongoing struggle between the principles of good and evil. During a lengthy truce of several thousand years, evil hurls himself into an abyss and good lays an egg, which represents the universe with the earth suspended from the vault of the sky at the midway point between where good and evil reside. Evil pierces the egg and returns to earth, and the two forces continue their battle.
In Finland, Luonnotar, the Daughter of Nature floats on the waters of the sea, minding her own business when an eagle arrives, builds a nest on her knee, and lays several eggs. After a few days, the eggs begin to burn and Luonnotar jerks her knee away, causing the eggs to fall and break. The pieces form the world as we know it: the upper halves form the skies, the lower the earth, the yolks become the sun, and the whites become the moon."
Happy Easter! Hope your day is as nice a day as ours is here in Vancouver, and that none of your eggs get broken.
First question: Why do I have a German Easter Card picturing a chicken? I collect chicken thematics. That's because my first pet, aside from the family's dog, Honey, was a rooster named George. Here's a photo of George, a Leghorn, with his Rhode Island Red wife, Lucy, and the rest of his harem:
Now that that's taken care of, here's the Easter Card and its cover, posted by a member of a German flak unit in 1943:
Here's the back of both the greeting card and the cover:
I've always been puzzled by the meaning, if any, of the broken egg. Any ideas? Perhaps a Stamporama with German heritage can shed some light on what would seem to be an unhappy Easter occasion.
Bob
re: A broken Easter egg
Don't know from German culture (Kinder, Küche, Kirche!) but I do know a bit about keeping chickens.
To wit: you need to get any broken eggs away from them, because they quickly develop a taste for fresh eggs.
From my kids & our chickens, I would say that the little boy is trying to defend the remaining eggs from a rooster who has gotten a taste of The Other Good Thing.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
re: A broken Easter egg
It is just the symbolism associated with easter: life - eggs and death - broken egg in connection to the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is also said that the egg is a symbol for the grave, more in particular the grave in Jerusalem from which Jesus rose.
re: A broken Easter egg
I interpretted it differently: that the RED rooster was a Soviet fighter or bomber; the WHITE egg was an Aryan civilian, and der kleine kinder was the flak unit defending further intrusions by the intruder: or Flak the Flock
Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
re: A broken Easter egg
I'm going to go with JanSimon on this. David, don't I hear your mother calling?
Here's possibly pertinent information from a Scientific American blog:
"Hinduism makes a connection between the content of the egg and the structure of the universe: for example, the shell represents the heavens, the white the air, and the yolk the earth. The Chandogya Upanishads describes the act of creation in terms of the breaking of an egg:
The Sun is Brahma—this is the teaching. A further explanation thereof (is as follows). In the beginning this world was merely non-being. It was existent. It developed. It turned into an egg. It lay for the period of a year. It was split asunder. One of the two egg-shell parts became silver, one gold. That which was of silver is this earth. That which was of gold is the sky … Now what was born therefrom is yonder sun.
In the Zoroastrian religion, the creation myth tells of an ongoing struggle between the principles of good and evil. During a lengthy truce of several thousand years, evil hurls himself into an abyss and good lays an egg, which represents the universe with the earth suspended from the vault of the sky at the midway point between where good and evil reside. Evil pierces the egg and returns to earth, and the two forces continue their battle.
In Finland, Luonnotar, the Daughter of Nature floats on the waters of the sea, minding her own business when an eagle arrives, builds a nest on her knee, and lays several eggs. After a few days, the eggs begin to burn and Luonnotar jerks her knee away, causing the eggs to fall and break. The pieces form the world as we know it: the upper halves form the skies, the lower the earth, the yolks become the sun, and the whites become the moon."