The Easter boiled egg or chocolate egg are Christian
symbols. It seems that the tradition of the Easter egg comes from the Hebrew
tradition of Easter (Pessa'h), at Seder hard-boiled egg dipped in salt water
symbolizes the festival sacrifice offered at the Temple in Jerusalem.
The
search for Easter eggs of the children comes from the same tradition in which
children had to look for
Matza. Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning
of the Jewish holiday of Passover, and Matza, unleavened bread. The custom of
Easter eggs was recorded by Coptic Christians (Egypt) in the tenth century. In
France, texts concerning Alsace speak about this tradition in the fifteenth
century. It is said that Louis XIV (1643 - 1715) put to be decorated golden
eggs which were given to courtiers and servants. The florentine secretary,
Antonio del Chiaro, noted that golden eggs were painted at the court of
Constantin Brâncoveanu (1688-1714). Christian legends link the symbol of the
sufferings of Jesus to the red eggs, the broken shell symbolizing resurrection.
A legend says that when Jesus was stoned, the eggs turned red as He touched
them. Another legend says that Virgin Mary came to see her son crucified with a
basket of eggs, which were filled with blood under the cross. In some European
countries, including Romania, eggs are painted or decorated on Thursday and are
collided on Sunday, The Day of Resurrection. On Easter, neither the eggs nor
the chocolate bunnies miss on Christians tables. But where do these customs
come from? In Antiquity, especially the Greeks, Romans and Germans, celebrated
the arrival of spring, after the monthly calendar, between March 20 and April
25. The disappearing of the snow and returning to life and the fertility of the
fields were being celebrated. The egg was a symbol of fertility, almost for all
nations, except Germans and Slavs, whereat the rabbit was the symbol of
fertility, because the rabbit is an prolific animal and its mating season is
during the Easter. For them, the rabbit was the embodiment of the goddess
Oester of the spring, which was celebrated when the moon reached equinox,
marking the changing of the seasons. Oester is the root of the word Easter,
which means Easter in English, and of the word Ostern, Easter in German. 2000
years ago, when Christians began to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
they have adopted more important symbols of fertility feast that marked the
resurrection of nature. Therefore on Easter, the eggs, hens and rabbits are
eaten. But what abaout chocolate eggs? The story of chocolate delicacies for
Easter begins in the czarist Russia. In the eighteenth century, in Eastern
Europe, Easter was celebrated by giving hard-boiled eggs to mark the arrival of
a prosperous season. The tsars have found a way to assert the superiority of
their class ordering porcelain eggs, eggs decorated with gold and precious
stones which were collected. An example off precious eggs are the Fabergé eggs,
the most expensive on the planet. Today there are only 42 such eggs in the
world, sold at auction with astronomical prices. The luxuriously decorated eggs
have reached the West in the fashion of the nineteenth century and a Swiss
invented the chocolate eggs. Then came the chocolate bunnies and chickens.
France and Germany also dispute the primacy of the first egg of chocolate made
in the early nineteenth century.
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