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The Easter Egg

Easter celebrations are filled with many traditions, but nothing has come to symbolize the Easter holiday as much as the colored or painted Easter egg. Many children spend their Easter Sunday hunting for Easter eggs, rolling them, or running races while carrying their eggs in spoons.

Across Eastern and Western cultures, eggs have long symbolized life, fertility and the regenerative force of nature. Legends such as the story of the Sun-Bird hatched from the World Egg, describe how the whole universe was created from an egg; these legends appear across cultures, in places such as India, Polynesia, Iran, Greece, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Central America and the west coast of South America.

The Egyptians buried eggs in their tombs and the Greeks placed eggs on graves. In Rome, the egg preceded processions in honor of the Mother Goddess Roman, and was part of the sacred ceremonies of Bacchus. The Druids used the egg as their sacred emblem.

In Europe, eggs were hung on New Year trees, on Maypoles, and on St. John’s trees in midsummer. Eggs were wrapped with gilt or gold leaf, while peasants often dyed their eggs. The household accounts of Edward I, for the year 1290, recorded an expenditure for four hundred and fifty eggs to be gold-leafed and colored for Easter gifts.

Easter has long been associated with fertility, not only because of its place in the spring calendar, but also because of some of the ancient, pagan roots of the holiday. In 2000 BC, the ancient Babylonians celebrated a festival in honor of the resurrection of their god, Tammuz, who was brought back from the underworld by his mother and wife, Ishtar – pronounced “Easter.” The Anglo-Saxons commemorated the goddess Eostre or Ostara, also a symbol of spring and fertility. Eostre is also related to the Greek word “Eos,” or “dawn,” which became the German word “Ost,” meaning “east.”

Eggs were dyed and eaten at spring festivals in ancient Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The ancient Persians gave eggs as gifts at the vernal equinox. From there, the missionaries or knights of the Crusades may have brought the concept of colored eggs to the West.

The tinting was achieved by boiling the eggs with certain flowers, leaves, log wood chips, or the cochineal insect. Spinach leaves or anemone petals were considered best for green; the bristly gorse blossom for yellow; and log wood for rich purple and the cochineal for scarlet.

In parts of Germany during the early 1880s, Easter eggs substituted for birth certificates. An egg was dyed a solid color, then a design, which included the recipient’s name and birth date, was etched into the shell with a needle or sharp tool. Such Easter eggs were honored in courts of law as evidence of identity and age.

People in early Christian cultures believed that the yolks of eggs laid on Good Friday would turn into diamonds after one hundred years. Good Friday eggs that were cooked on Easter would promote the fertility of the trees and crops and protect against sudden deaths. Anyone lucky enough to find two yolks in an Easter egg was sure to be very rich soon.

Happy Easter!

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