Easter in Primorje is the event organized on 1 April, on Palm Sunday, in the village of the Dubrovnik hinterland - Kliševo. The highlights of the event include the Primorje Wedding with traditional rituals, picturesque folk costumes and rich ornaments. On Easter day, following the tradition, the Old City visitors will be presented with Easter eggs, and entertained by “Klapa Kaše”.

On Palm Sunday people of faith in the Dubrovnik region go to church where olive twigs and finely plaited palm leaves are taken for blessing. Easter symbolises the awaking of nature, when plants bud and blossom, and when new life is born. That is why eggs became the universally accepted symbols of newly awaked life with good reason. During Holy Week eggs are painted in the old-fashioned way typical of the Dubrovnik coastline and Konavle. The painted eggs are characterized by neat and beautiful decoration, written messages and congratulatory messages which are typical of the region. Although the old egg-painting technique seems to be exceptionally complex at first, the experienced women of Primorje and Konavle maintain otherwise. They claim that the more experience you have in painting the eggs the more beautiful they look. The drawings on the raw eggs are made using melted beeswax into which one plunges a needle attached to a piece of wood, most often laurel or grapevine. The “penica” is used for writing the messages. In old times, when the old hearths were still used, women used to hold in their laps bowls with ashes and live coals on which the wax melted in the steady high temperature. Nowadays, the bowls are placed on the cooking stove or on a special little device with candles that melt wax and make the work easier. They say that at Easter the first painted egg is given as a present to the person who is dearest to you. It is thus not surprising that the main motif on many of the painted eggs is a heart.

Painted eggs were mainly aimed at expressing love and affection, and such a gift often revealed a fancy for someone and hidden feelings. People thus took good care when choosing the person to whom they would present the egg. Particularly valued were eggs painted in red, which symbolized life and nature.
 

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