Traditional Easter Marbled Pace Eggs
Traditions on Monday
~ Traditional Easter Marbled Pace Eggs ~
Pace Eggs is a very old British tradition and method of colouring and dying eggs to be boiled and eaten on Good Friday and throughout the Easter weekend. There are commercial dyes available nowadays, but I still prefer the traditional natural methods of colouring my Easter Pace Eggs – onions skins (and also spinach & beetroot water). The name Pace is thought to derive from the French word for Easter, Pâques…and in some parts of Britain – mainly Lancashire in the North West, these eggs are rolled down a hill, the winner being the owner of the egg which goes the furthest and has the least cracks or breaks in it. It is also traditional to give one of these eggs to each person who visits your home throughout the Easter period – what a wonderful alternative to the commercially over packaged chocolate eggs.
Traditional Easter Marbled Pace Eggs made with my Chicken’s Free-Range Eggs
Another Easter tradition, usually found in the North of England, is the practice is Pace Egg Plays. Pace Egg Plays are traditional village plays, with the traditional Easter rebirth theme, where St George vanquishes all the potential challengers and the fool, “Toss Pot”, rejoices. These plays takes the form of a classic combat between “goodie” (hero) and “baddie” (villain), in which the hero is killed and then brought back to life, invariably by a character called the “quack doctor”. Sadly, many Pace Egg plays died out after the Great War (The First World War), as so many of the men who took part in them were killed in action, however, the plays have enjoyed a remarkable renaissance in recent years, with the most famous taking place in Heptonsall, in West Yorkshire.
St George slays Bold Slasher – Heptonstall Pace Egg Play The Pace Egg Play is acted out every Good Friday in Weavers Square, Heptonstall. The Heptonstall Players give the following description “Originally an adult rebirth ceremony for a good new season The Pace Egg Play is perhaps the world’s oldest drama and can be traced back through English and European Mummers’ plays to ancient Egypt and Syria. A mixture of a pagan rebirth ceremony with the later influences of Christianity and the Crusades.” This account of the plays origins is disputed by some researchers who suggest it may be more recent in date. The Heptonstall version was revived in 1979. Click on this photo for more information about the play and its origins:
The wonderful website HebWeb has more information about the Pace Egg Plays and all the other events linked to the plays and you can access it here: PACE EGG PLAY – 6th April 2012.
But back to my eggs, I am posting this recipe for Pace Eggs today, as I suddenly realised that Good Friday is just under three weeks away, and I am hoping to share lots of traditional Easter recipes with you over the next few weeks…….so you can get menu planning! I am lucky enough to be able to use my lovely chicken’s eggs for these pace eggs, all free-range with deep golden-yellow yolks, wonderful Easter eggs in all respects. I hope you enjoy making these pace eggs this Easter; I know that children especially enjoy getting involved, and I remember my daughter’s face when having helped to wrap the eggs in leaves and onion skins, on being taken out of the pan the patterned and marbled eggs emerged – her face was a joy to behold! See you later with some BACON recipes……..and other treats! Karen
Traditional Easter Marbled Pace Eggs
See my updated recipe with step-by-step photos here: https://www.lavenderandlovage.com/2021/03/traditional-easter-pace-eggs.html
Traditional Easter Marbled Pace Eggs
Print recipe
| Serves | 12 Pace Eggs |
| Prep time | 15 minutes |
| Cook time | 5 minutes |
| Total time | 20 minutes |
| Allergy | Egg |
| Dietary | Vegetarian |
| Meal type | Breakfast, Side Dish, Snack |
| Misc | Child Friendly, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold, Serve Hot |
| Region | British |
Ingredients
- 12 free-range eggs
- 6 - 8 onion skins (red and yellow)
- tinfoil
- natural non-coloured string
Optional
- butter
- beetroot water or spinach water
Note
This is a very old British tradition & method of colouring and dying eggs to be boiled and eaten on Good Friday & throughout the Easter weekend. There are commercial dyes available nowadays, but I still prefer the traditional natural methods of colouring my Easter Pace Eggs – onions skins (and also spinach & beetroot water).
Directions
| Step 1 | Peel the outer skins away from red and yellow onions. Wrap the skins around the eggs in a random way - you do not need to cover the egg completely. |
| Step 2 | Encase the eggs with the onion skins in a piece of aluminium foil - covering completely, OR tie pieces of non-coloured string around the eggs. |
| Step 3 | Boil the eggs for about 5 -7 minutes. Take off the heat and allow to cool in the water. |
| Step 4 | Peel away the string, aluminium foil, onion skins and arrange the coloured eggs in a basket or egg holder - for the centre of the Easter Breakfast, Tea or Brunch table. |
| Step 5 | You can "polish" the eggs with a bit of butter to deepen the colours and give them a gloss. Alternative dyes include, beetroot water and spinach water for red and green eggs. |
Ren Behan says
Stunning! What a beautiful effect. We always follow Polish tradition and colour eggs with onion skins, too.
Karen says
Thanks Ren, I love keeping up the old traditions, and it’s amazing how many countries have the same ones when it comes to the major celebrations too.
Penelope says
I love these, I thought my Dad just used to do them for us! I had no idea that there was a whole tradition behind them.
Karen says
Thanks Penelope, Mum taught me and then I taught my daughter to make these at Easter!
Lorna's Tearoom Delights says
Lovely job, your eggs look beautiful. I haven’t heard of pace eggs for ages, we don’t have that tradition north of the border. My mum spent some of her childhood in Carlisle and she has told me about them but I didn’t know about the plays, that’s completely new to me. Very interesting post.
Karen says
Thanks Lorna, I LOVE making these every Easter and they look so pretty on the Easter tea table too!
Janice says
What fun. Your egg is really beautiful, we certainly used to paint our eggs as children but mainly used food colouring!
Karen says
Thanks Janice, I love using natural dyes this way and if you have cooked with onions than this is a great way to recycle!
Kentish Keg-Meg says
So interesting all the info about pace eggs.Love the marbling effect on the eggs using the onion skins.
Karen says
Thanks Keg Meg! If you use different onion skins such as red and the usual yellow ones, you get even nice colours!
Neesie says
I never heard them called pace eggs before Karen…really interesting hearing all the tradition info.
I’ve never eaten chucky eggs but I like to decorate them. Looking forward to all the recipies 😀
Karen says
Thanks Neesie, I like to revive old traditions!
Sylvie (A Pot of Tea) says
Karen, what a lovely way to colour eggs. I have to admit that I usually opt for the comercial dyes, but this year I might just give this a go!
Karen says
Have a go Sylvie, this way is fun and if you have cooked with onions, then a great way to recycle the skins too!
Corina says
I remember marbelling eggs like this when I was a child and then going out and rolling them. I’d never heard of Heptonstall or the name pace eggs though – it’s good to remember old traditions.
Karen says
That’s great Corina, maybe you will make some of these eggs this year and roll them down your garden!!
pam says
I stumbled across your post this morning while looking for one of my own old posts and could not believe it because I had a pot of onion skins boiling away on my stove as i read your words! I tried the wrap technique earlier today and then a couple other techniques. This is all quite new to me so i am just having fun playing!
My wrapped eggs did not come out nearly as beautiful as yours – but I loved the process and the results I did get and had so much fun! I used another site for the how-to but will include links to both that site and your post here in my own post next week!
Love your blog and look forward to sharing it with my own readers.
Karen says
Thanks so much Pam for popping by to tell me about your pace eggs exploits! I would also be happy to link this post to your post next week if you like? Do let em know, I am happy to share and link with other bloggers, as it helps us all! I LOVE the alchemy of this process, the simple wrapping of onion skins and then the result of fabulous marbled eggs, it is magical! And, a GREAT way to recycle onion skins too!
Beryl skidmore says
When I saw about pace eggs it brought lovely memories back about when I lived in a village in Cumbria called Clifton .we used to put on our new Easter clothes and go round to people’s houseful show them off and they would give us a pace egg .
Karen says
Thanks Beryl, what lovely memories – I remember is was the tradition to buy new Easter clothes too, and to decorate bonnets…I hope pace eggs make a reappearance again, as it is a lovely tradition. Karen
Ann Clarke says
Reading all the comments on Pace Eggs brought many memories back for me. I have always done Pace Eggs for my children at Easter, but never really known the story behind them. My mum did them when my sister and I were children, and I’ve continued the tradition with my children. The one thing my mum did that I’ve not seen in any of the comments – she used to write our names in candle wax on the eggs before boiling them, so when they came out of the pan, our eggs were dyed the most beautiful brown and our names appeared in white on them. Then we used to play the game of hitting each others eggs to find out who had the champion egg, the one that survived all the hitting without cracking, or which had the least cracks, won.!!
Anonymous says
That is absolutely wonderful Ann, thanks so much for your comment….and, now you mention it, I think my grandmother used to do the candlewax name trick too…..must check with my mum! WONDERFUL to read your memories, thanks so much! Karen
PS: I remember mum making shapes with a wax crayon, similar to your name thing….
Mark Hope-Urwin says
Just come across this and it is a lovely reminder of a by-gone activity as a child in the Midlands and ‘though a Northern saying my Father use to provide the rhyme Tid, Mid, Miseray, Carlin, Palm, Pace-Egg Day to emphasise the Sundays in the run up to Easter
Karen Burns-Booth says
What a wonderful memory, thanks so much for sharing it Mark!
Heidi Roberts says
I love keeping traditions going especially the faces of the children when you do them for the first time.
Ashleigh says
My grandma passed 2 years ago and I am 26 and she always made and handed out pase eggs. Thus year I am going to give it a go as my mum will love it and hopefully help keep the tradition going with my two niece’s aged 12 and 3 and my own daughter age 21 months.. thank you so much for the guide as grandma didn’t have the chance to show me
(In Carlisle Cumbria btw lol)
Karen Burns-Booth says
Hi Ashleigh,
I’m so pleased you will be able to make pace eggs again this year, in memory of your grandma;it’s always a pleasure to share these old British traditions and recipes with people in an attempt to keep them alive.
I LOVE Cumbria, and I am not that far away here in N Wales too! 🙂
Happy Easter,
Karen
Geoff says
Although pronounced ‘pace’ it is spelt pasche, short for pascual, as in the Paschal Lamb. I am from Carlisle and we always coloured our eggs with onion skins and other leaves such as dandelion. Just experiment.
Karen Burns-Booth says
Thanks Geoff, as you might see from my recipe here, I have used onion skins and small flowers too! My mum showed me how to make them when I was about 5 yrs old. Karen
Jean Burrow says
I loved your blog and your eggs look lovely, but’ pace’ eggs should be spelled PASCHE, and still is as far as I know. It comes from the Latin for Easter as does the word Paschal, and indeed the French pacques.
I am a Cumbrian and my grandmother used to colour the eggs with Gorse and lichen which produce yellow and purple. I’m afraid I stick to onion skins!
Karen Burns-Booth says
Hello Jean
Thank you for your kind comments and uiur interpretation of the spelling of pace eggs.
My spelling of Pace Eggs is absolutely correct, as there are many spellings of these onion skin dyed eggs, depending on where you come from.
I lived in France for 20 years and I’m aware of the origins of the word pace eggs in relation to the French word for Easter – Pâques. In fact I’ve written about it in separate post.
There’s also a very interesting article here, https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Pace-Egging/ where the spelling is also pace. I’ve seen these eggs spelled pace, paste and Pasche as you mention too.
I’ve recently discovered that red cabbage leaves give pace eggs a wonder blue colour. But like you, I stick to onion skins!
Fascinating subject!
Have a happy and blessed Easter!
Karen