As Easter is just around the corner, we are excited to share some fun facts with you about this important religious holiday and how eggs and bunnies found their way into it.
While researching about Easter eggs online, our search somehow found its way to associate with the premiere of Game of Thrones’ final season (‘Hunting eggs for GOT’), which got us even more excited about it.
1. Why Easter?
Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and is an ancient Christian tradition.
2. There’s no specific date for Easter
Given its ancient tradition, Easter does not fall on a specific date of our calendar nowadays, it usually takes place somewhere between end of March and the end of April. By tradition, Easter is supposed to take place on the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21steach year.
3. Why all the eggs?
Traditionally, eggs have been considered a symbol of fertility. Most importantly, an egg symbolizes resurrection as it contains a new life sealed within it. When cracking eggs during Easter, Christians traditionally link the act to the opening of Christ’s tomb.
4. Why are we coloring eggs?
The coloring has different meanings. Originating from early Christian communities in Mesopotamia, some of us dye eggs exclusively in red, symbolizing the life and blood of Jesus. Other cultures would color eggs in all colors of the rainbow, symbolizing nature’s awakening in spring. Before industrial dye and readymade colored eggs, dye used to be made from onion peels or flowers.
5. Egg-throwing in church and other games
There are countless games people play with eggs around the globe during Easter. Some balance them on a spoon while racing each other while others bounce them against each other (the holder of the egg that doesn’t crack will be lucky) and so on. During medieval times, people stepped it up a notch and threw around an egg in church. The father would throw a boiled egg to the choir boys who would then toss it to each other until noon. Whoever held it at that time was the lucky winner and got to keep it. (Remember this was the ritual practiced during the middle ages and eggs were far more precious.)
6. Why the rabbit?
The Easter bunny is a real mystery. One theory is that the symbol of rabbit stems the pagan goddess of fertility, whose animal symbol is a rabbit. The Easter bunny first appeared in a kid’s novel around 1860 and was later picked up by many authors. One story goes that, due to the animal’s high reproduction rate, rabbits make great symbols for Spring’s fertility and nature’s awakening. So where a bunny brings an egg, it means fertility, bringing in new life. (Biologically questionable, but hey, it’s the holidays.
7. No bunnies for Australia
If you are spending Easter down under, take note as rabbits are considered a pest in Australia and are not very popular. The Aussies introduced ‘Easter Bilby’ in 1968, a native Australian marsupial, as an alternative to the pestering rabbits. As bilbies are endangered nowadays, a lot of chocolate manufacturers, such as Cadbury, produce chocolate bilbies for Easter and donate a part of their earnings to preserving the natural habitats of this Australian-native cutie.
8. The Easter sugar rush
70% of Easter candy consumed today is chocolate. Besides chocolate, which we will focus on in the next point, jelly beans are of crucial importance when it comes to Easter indulgence. Americans consume more than 16 million jelly beans during Easter. To put that into perspective, 16 million jelly beans laid next to each other are long enough to circle the globe three times.
9. How to eat Easter bunnies
Now, this is of utmost importance. A study amongst Americans has shown that 76% of the respondents believe that the ears of an Easter bunny should be eaten first (The same goes for Santa, start from the head according to the same study). People around the world consume more than 90 million chocolate bunnies during Easter. By the way, the dragon eggs (due to the popularity of GOT) are the next big thing and will make a great gift for those GOT fans.
10. Easter pretzels
If you are not into chocolate or jellybeans, the Germans got you covered. Lesser known though, the intertwined parts of pretzels are said to symbolize arms crossed for praying, hence this savory snack is as well linked to Easter. Don’t hesitate to ask for a fresh pretzel with you Easter eggs and impress your peers with this story.
11. It’s all about eggs
During Easter, each of us consumes 24 eggs on average according to a global study (Happy Cholesterol). Egg sales experience a sharp increase around Easter time every year.
12. The world’s most expensive egg
Faberge, the renowned jeweler famous for its jeweled eggs, has sold the most expensive Easter egg covered in diamonds for £9 million (not your regular egg).
A cockerel made of jewels pops up from the top of the Faberge egg, flaps its wings, nods its head and makes a crowing noise every hour. This exclusive gold-and-pink enamel egg was made for the Russian royal family as an engagement gift for French Aristocrat Baron Edouard de Rothschild.
We hope you will enjoy the Easter days with your loved ones. If you’re tired of chocolate eggs, but £9 million Faberge eggs aren’t an option either, check out our latest timepieces for some marvelously meaningful Easter gift ideas here.
MYKU wishes you a happy Easter!