The Origin of Easter Eggs

Easter is one of those strange times of year that falls in a different place each year, known as a movable feast. It doesn’t seem to follow the gregorian calendar, but the lunisolar one instead.

It is a Christian religious festival and falls on a sunday, 40 days after the start of Lent - the fasting season.

The name Easter is most likely derived from the germanic word Eostre, the name of a german goddess. Easter Eggs are thought to have originally been a pagan symbol used because they symbolise fertility, growth and birth, as a chick hatches from an egg.

Eggs have continued to be a popular symbol for Easter, and chocolate Easter Eggs were created in the 1800’s and became popular in the 19th century in Germany and France, and then found their way across other parts of Europe and other parts of the world.

Easter traditions and rituals include the painting of empty egg shells (getting them empty is the fun part!), hand-painted wooden eggs and decorated trees in parts of Europe, decorating eggs with paint, ribbons and other trimmings. Easter eggs hunts are also common pastimes for children over the Easter holiday period, you can even get special Easter eggs for the visually impaired and blind children that still want to enjoy Easter egg hunts. These eggs emit a noise to make them easy to find.

Easter has certainly become more commercialised, especially with the creation of the Easter Bunny and chocolate Easter eggs. Most people nowadays associate chocolate with Easter, probably because that is the one item that most people ‘give up’ for 40 days during Lent. Yet despite Easter being an odd mix of a variety of cultures, religions and commercial influences, the Easter Egg is still the one common theme that joins them all.

Read our article on the Best 20 Easter Eggs for 2008

Or if you fancy buying something a bit different for Easter this year, why not look at our Alternative Easter Gifts guide