Glimpse into the future with Easter ‘eggs-periment’

Back in the days, on Good Friday mornings, it was customary for Jamaicans, especially those in the rural areas, to dash out of bed and check on the egg white that they left in a glass container with water on Holy Thursday night.

It was widely believed that persons could get a glimpse into their future by engaging in this once-per-year practice. The results sometimes left some people pregnant with expectation and optimism, while others suffered elevated blood pressure almost instantly. According to this tradition, if the egg white took the shape of a ring, it meant that person would be getting married very soon. A ship and aeroplane meant travel, while a coffin signalled that the end is nigh.

Joan Clarke, a resident of Belfield, St Mary, said she placed egg whites in water during her earlier years because she wanted to see what the future held.

"I always see a something shaping like a ship and I am yet to travel on a ship," Clarke told THE WEEKEND STAR.

Looking back, Clarke said there was no good reason for people to believe that putting an egg white in a glass of water could help them see into the future.

"As a child, mi use to believe in it, but now that mi grown I just think the egg white would have to shape out in something, and it just happen that it look like a ship because, in reality, a mostly ship people always a see," she added.

In fact, the 'eggs-periment' failed to detect that marriage was on the label for Clarke who is married to another Belfield resident, Dauswell. The Clarkes have been together for more than 30 years. Dauswell said that he, too, used to leave an egg white in a glass of water on Holy Thursday night. He has never seen a wedding ring.

"Mi use to set it and mi see ship, but a plane mi go on, so the prediction never right at all," Dauswell said.

He told THE WEEKEND STAR that he used to believe that setting the egg white was the surest way to know the future.

"We did little bit and a grow up and would want to go to farrin and dem ting deh, and we would wah see plane, but I never see nutten more than ship," Dauswell said.

However, while he could afford to be optimistic that he would travel to a foreign land, there were some persons who, having seen the results of their eggs, went into instant depression. Community members recalled how one of their elderly neighbours saw the pattern resembling a casket and cried for days.

"She was very superstitious enuh. When she wake a morning time, she throw a drum a water fi wet up har place because she think people a work pon har. Mi seh, every Easter she used to wake up and check her egg white. She always a see some things whe nobody else nah see, including a man. Suh, kill har dead, a husband she a guh get. Bwoy, one morning she claim she see one casket and the woman leggo one scream deh wake up di world," a woman said between peals of laughter.

"Everybody run go up a har yard and she show dem and say she a dead. People a wonder if a stroke she a get until she show di glass. Mi a did pickney, suh mi don't know what kind a shape she see, but she seh a casket. Mi say, she bawl she bawl until no tears nah come. She dead about six or suh years later and mi know seh even her ghost now tink a di egg white cause it," the resident added.