Elaine Vardjan is one of the last to carry on a Pennsylvania Dutch Easter tradition.
At her craft table, a tiny tree bore even smaller eggs, each wrapped with meadow rush and adorned in colored calico fabric, in “binsa graws” fashion.
Vardjan’s creations were one of many displays of the region’s traditional springtime staples during Easter on the Farm Saturday at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center in Kutztown.
“My great-grandmother’s cousin did (binsa graws) eggs (in the 1950s),” said Vardjan, 86. “When I realized no one was continuing the tradition, I started doing them.”
Elaine Vardjan of Oley displays an ostervogel egg she had created during the Easter on the Farm celebration at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University on Saturday, March 28, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
One unique creation was a bird Vardjan made about 20 years ago.
“It had the combination of the binsa graws and onion skin (dye) eggs,” Vardjan said of the bird. “And I had a Japanese friend, she taught me how to do (origami cranes). So I used the head of one of them (for the bird).”
Aside her egg tree, Vardjan used a shop knife to carve “scratch eggs,” dyed with onion skin and carved with Easter imagery.
The Sharadin Farmhouse held ornately scratched goose eggs by the late Peter Fritsch, a poet, folk artist and Berks County native.
“He was one of the most celebrated Pennsylvania Dutch poets of the second half of the 20th century,” said Patrick Donmoyer, director of the cultural heritage center. “He was also a public-school teacher in Reading who taught art.”
Dunnmoyer said Fritsch based his carving of the Easter “hare” on an image by Conrad Gilbert, a Germany native and master of fraktur — an elaborate fusion of illustration and script.
A Peter Fritsch egg modeled after the work of Berks County artist Conrad Gilbert, who first introduced the Easter bunny illustrations in the early 1800s, is displayed during the Easter on the Farm celebration at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University on Saturday, March 28, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
“Gilbert created the earliest known images of the Easter rabbit in North America,” Donmoyer said. “They date between 1810 and 1820.”
Gilbert settled in what is now Schuylkill County.
On the hunt
Scratch eggs were far from the only eggs in play on the farm Saturday — dozens of kids, some donning bunny ears and outfits, left no prize unfound during the farms’ two Easter egg hunts.
To accompany their eggs, kids in the craft tent were hard at work making woven baskets.
Under the tutelage of pro weaver Debbie Zvanut of New Tripoli, Lehigh County, Milasia Holland, 9 of Norristown made a miniature basket out of reeds and a wooden base. Holland wove the basket after bringing in a solid haul during the egg hunt.
“I got so many (eggs),” Holland said. “I think they had a bunch of candy and toys…It was awesome.”
Mialasia Holland, 7, of Norristown, proudly holds the Easter basket she made during the Easter on the Farm celebration at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University on Saturday, March 28, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Zvanut said she helps kids put together dozens of baskets every year, walking them through the basic concepts of weaving.
Debbi Zvanut of New Tripoli leads a children’s basketmaking workshop during the Easter on the Farm celebration at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University on Saturday, March 28, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Woven baskets were once commonplace, according to Laura Reppert of Lobachsville, who was weaving baskets out of willow, rye grass and reeds.
“Traditionally, they would have woven out of oak,” she said. “You had to fell a whole tree, soak it, peel the bark and pound it until all the rings compact.”
Those efforts withstood the test of time — some examples on Reppert’s extensive display dated to the 1800s.
Laura Reppert of Lobachsville displays baskets made in the 18th and 19th centuries that are part of the heritage center’s collection during the Easter on the Farm celebration at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University on Saturday, March 28, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
She said rye grass was used to hold foods like apples and bread, since it is effective at keeping pests out.
“Basket weaving was a craft, but they (baskets) were used for everything every day,” Reppert said. “Up until World War II, (nearly) everything was transported and stored in a basket.”
Celebration of crafts
Crafts from traditional hearth cooking to blacksmithing were also on display Saturday throughout the open-air museum, including Phyllis Schantzenback’s crocheted doilies.
Schantzenback, of Macungie, Lehigh County, said she’s been crocheting for 60 years.
Phyllis Shantzenback of Macungie, Lehigh County, displays her crocheting work during the Easter on the Farm celebration at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University on Saturday, March 28, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Donmoyer noted that for the Pennsylvania Dutch, Easter carried spiritual significance and served as a time to celebrate renewal and rebirth.
“They (Easter traditions) reinforced the community’s connection,” he said. “Family and friends would get together, kids would have egg contests and knock eggs together … A lot of these date back to older traditions associated with the blessings of fertility and spring.”
Some would even take eggs laid on Good Friday and keep them in their house.
“The belief was it would keep your house from getting struck by lightning,” Donmoyer said.
He said one family who donated Good Friday eggs to the cultural center swore by the practice, since their egg-outfitted farmhouse was able to withstand a severe windstorm that damaged neighbors’ homes.
“The reawakening of the earth, the Christian idea of the resurrection, all the ideas of art and togetherness…I really appreciate that for the Pennsylvania Dutch, Easter really brings all of those things together,” Donmoyer said.
The German word “freundschaft” translates literally to friendship, he said, but the meaning for the Pennsylvania Dutch is broader and more intimate.
“People used the word to mean they were “related” to someone,” Donmoyer said. “I think that concept is part and parcel with how people celebrated the holidays.”
Marteena, a 16-year-old pot-bellied pig is dresses as a bunny during the Easter on the Farm celebration at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University on Saturday, March 28, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Participants enjoy the hay ride during the Easter on the Farm celebration at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University on Saturday, March 28, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)