Friday 6 April 2012

Why Do We Have Easter Eggs?


I thought to myself this morning “Why do we have easter eggs?” after seeing all the adverts in the shops and adverts on television and so, decided to look it up. For those of you that did not know, Eggs are a forbidden food during Lent so it is a welcome return to the menu on Eater day (more so in the olden days) Easter as we know is a Christian holiday and the giving of eggs over easter celebrates new life as Jesus rose from the dead.  Easter has become a very commercialised holiday for some and we give chocolate eggs without thinking about where they have originated from. The first types of eggs given at Easter were painted birds eggs in bright colours and patterns  (I have been told they were painted and decorated to further their meaning as a gift) Some people still give decorated birds eggs no, however they are now only chicken eggs. Whilst this had explained the reason for the eggs, there was another question that I also had on my mind relating to easter “Why do we have the Easter Bunny?” and after some research I also discovered that it is an Anglo-Saxon legend. Anglo-Saxon tells of  the Saxon goddess Estre. She found a wounded bird and transformed it into a hare, so that it could survive the Winter. The hare found that it could lay eggs, so it decorated these eggs every spring and left them as an offering to the goddess. Now all of this, I found on the internet so it may be true or it may be a complete lie so please so not quote me on anything. I found it rather interesting so I thought that I would share my new found knowledge with you over this Easter break. If you celebrate Easter then have a great one and do not eat too much chocolate, 






Signing out, Thatmfeeling 

1 comment:

  1. Interesting way to see it from a historical stand point. I, myself had never been taught what the meaning was... but found the interesting concept of the Easter Egg representing the large stone that was rolled away at the Resurrection...giving way to the hiding of the egg meaning that we were able to look for what God had left us. The only other piece I wanted to tie to this is that some of the Eggs are also rolled with the child's or persons noses.. to signify perhaps the rolling of that stone. Now this is things I had found in the symbolism of the egg which are maybe contrary to what you had found but I found the "heart" of the meaning by looking from a source other than man and woman's type left overs and placing a "new" more significant meaning with the Easter Egg. Thank you for leaving me a place to write this comment.. Have a wonderful 2012 Easter!

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