Just a few egg facts around the holiday that we felt you may enjoy!
-In China, parents might give family members and friends a red-dyed egg to announce the birth of a child.
-For Jewish culture a roasted egg on the Passover Seder plate has stood for life and the hope of salvation for many, many centuries
-Germans use green eggs as a symbol of mourning on Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter.
-During the Renaissance in Italy, romantic young men tossed empty eggshells filled with perfume or cologne at young women. The custom spread to Austria, France and Spain. Later, in Mexico, empty eggshells were filled with confetti and used to make wishes and broken on the heads of other children. For a special celebration, Japanese parents give their children eggs that are decorated to look just like the children!
-The term Easter comes from Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, to whom the month of April was dedicated. So, along with the spring equinox and spring festivals, people started exchanging eggs as a symbol of creation, new-life, and a resurrection of nature after winter.
-The Easter Bunny arose originally as a symbol of fertility, due to the rapid reproduction habits of the hare and rabbit.
-Edward I of England showed an expenditure of eighteen pence for 450 eggs to be gold-leafed and colored for Easter gifts.
-The first book to mention Easter eggs by name was written five hundred years ago.
-Christians abstained from eating meat during the Lenten season prior to Easter. Easter was the first chance to enjoy eggs and meat after the long abstinence.
-Some European children go from house to house begging for Easter eggs, much like Halloween trick-or-treaters. Called pace-egging, it comes from the old word for Easter, Pasch.
-Many old cultures also attributed the egg with great healing powers.
