A lot of persons may chomp on chocolate eggs at Easter, but originally eating eggs was not really allowed by the church during the week leading up to Easter known as the Holy Week. So as many eggs laid that week were saved and decorated to make them Holy Week eggs, that were hence given to children as gifts. Victorians adopted a tradition with satin-covered cardboard eggs that are filled with Easter presents. This over the years has now developed into the tradition that many people has enjoyed today.
The first chocolate eggs appeared in France and Germany in the 19th Century, but they were more unless bitter and hard. As chocolate-making techniques improved, hollow eggs just like the ones we have today were advanced. They quickly became popular and has remained a favourite tradition with chocolates loves today.
The story of the Easter Bunny is saved to have become popular in the 19th Century. Rabbits usually give birth to a big litter of kittens, so they hence became a symbol of new life. Legends have it that the Easter Bunny lays, decorates and hides eggs as they are also a symbol of a new beginning. This is why most children really enjoy Easter egg hunts as part of the festival exercise. It does not do all the work alone though! In Switzerland, Easter eggs are mostly delivered by a cuckoo and in parts of Germany by a fox. Before we proceed, let’s talk on the following
Easter Eggs
Easter is a religious celebration, but some of its customs, such as the Easter eggs, are more likely related to the pagan traditions. The egg is an ancient symbol of new life, has been associated to the pagan festivals celebrating spring. From a Christian point of view, Easter eggs have been said to represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb and resurrection. Decorating eggs for Easter is a tradition that goes back a long way to at least the 13th century, according to research. One of the major explanation for this annual tradition is that eggs are formerly a forbidden food during the season of Lent, so people would paint and decorate them to mark the end of that period of penance, arms giving and fasting, then eat them on Easter as a part of their celebration.
Easter egg hunts and egg rolling are two popular and related traditions. In the U.S., the White House Easter Egg Roll, a race in which children push decorated, hard-boiled eggs around the White House lawn, is a yearly event held the Monday after Easter. The first official White House egg roll took place in 1878, when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. These occasions had no Christian religious significance, but most people have considered egg rolling a symbol of the stone covering Jesus’ tomb being rolled away, hence, leading to his resurrection.
Easter Candy
Easter happens to be the second best-selling candy holiday in America, after Halloween. Amongst the most popular sweet treats associated with this day are chocolate eggs, which date back to the early 19th century Europe. Eggs have long been related with Easter as a symbol of new life, beginning and Jesus’ resurrection. Eggs shaped candy, the jelly bean, is associated with Easter in the 1930s through the jelly beans origins are reportedly dated way back to a Biblical era concoction called a Turkish Delight. According to the National Confectioners Association, over 16 billion jelly beans were made in the U.S. each year for Easter, enough to fill a giant egg measuring 89 feet tall and 60 feet wide. For the past decade, one of the top-selling non-chocolate Easter candy has been the marshmallow Peep, a sugary, pastel-colored confection. Bethlehem and Pennsylvania based candy manufacturer founded by Russian immigrant Sam Born in 1923 began the selling of Peeps in the 1950s. Most of the original Peeps were handcrafted, marshmallow flavored yellow chicks, but some other shapes and flavors were later introduced, including the chocolate mousse bunnies.
Easter Parade
Easter Parade tradition has come a long way back, as far back to the mid-1800s, when the upper class of the society will attend Easter services at various Avenue churches then take a walk outside afterward, showing off their new outfits and hats. Average citizens started showing up along Fifth Avenue to look at the action. The tradition reached its peak by the mid-20th century, and in 1948, A popular film Easter Parade was aired, starring Fred Astaire, Judy Garland and featuring the music of Irving Berlin. The title song that was sang included the lyrics: In your Easter bonnet, with all the Thrill upon it. You will be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.
The Easter Parade tradition lives on in Manhattan, with Fifth Avenue from 49th Street to 57th Street is closed down during the day due to traffic. Participants are often sported elaborately decorated bonnets and hats. The occasion has no religious significance, but sources note that Easter processions as always been a part of Christianity since its earliest days. Today, other cities within and across America also have their own parades.
Easter Bunny
There is no story in the Bible about a creature with a long ear, cotton-tailed known as the Easter Bunny. Although, there was a passage about young children painting a certain amount of eggs and hunting for baskets loaded with scrumptious Easter presents. And real rabbits certainly do not lay eggs.
Hence, Why are some of these traditions so ingrained on Easter Sunday? And what is their relationship with the resurrection of Jesus? Well, to be crystal clear, Nothing.
Bunnies, eggs, Easter gifts and fluffy, yellow chicks in gardening hats all like an adopted tradition from the pagan origin. Most of these people are into the celebration of Easter separately from the Christian tradition of honoring the day Jesus Christ overcome death and rose from the dead.
Eggs are a potent representation of life, renewal and rebirth dating back as far as the time in millennia. The egg was later adopted by the early Christians as an occasion of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter. The egg basically represents a lot of things relating to easter, hence, the hard shell of an egg symbolizes the tomb and the emerging chick represents Jesus, whose resurrection has conquered death.
This tradition of eating eggs on Easter is interwoven with Lent, the six-week period before Easter by which Christians basically stay away from all animal varieties such as meats, dairy and eggs. Since chickens have continually laid eggs throughout the Lenten period, people hence choose to hard boil the eggs, decorate them and preserve them for Easter. The modern tradition of eating chocolate eggs at Easter is more about fun and its a kid’s friendly twist on this ancient religious ritual Which originated in Europe in the early 19th century.
