Did your Easter bunny gift you with an Easter egg?

Mumbai: ‘Easter’ the day which marks the ‘Resurrection of Jesus from his death’, is a joyous occasion for Christians all around the world. Besides the religious celebration, it’s a jolly time for kids who wait for this day believing that their easter bunny will gift them with yummy easter eggs in variant sizes.

The Easter Bunny is also known as the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare, which is a fantasy character depicted as a rabbit bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the Easter Hare originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behaviour at the start of the season of Eastertide.

Eggs are a symbol of ‘new life’. As per the Catholic faith, Jesus’s resurrection marks the beginning of new life and life can win over death. When the eggs are cracked open, they stand for the empty tomb and a new being pops out of it. ‘Eggs were always thought to be special because although they do not seem alive, they have life within them especially at springtime when chicks hatch out,’ as per the historical records.

Easter falls in the spring, the yearly time of renewal, when the earth renews itself after a long, cold winter. The word Easter comes to us from the Norsemen's Eostur, Eastar, Ostara, and Ostar, and the pagan goddess Eostre, all of which involve the season of the growing sun and new birth. The Easter Bunny arose originally as a symbol of fertility, due to the rapid reproduction habits of the hare and rabbit. Many of the families even tell their children that the Easter Hare or Bunny has hidden chocolate eggs and they race to find them round the house or garden. Children in other countries decorate hard-boiled eggs at Easter time by painting or dyeing them.

In some countries such as the United States egg rolling is a popular Easter game. This is usually done with coloured eggs. One of the most well known events is held in America on the White House lawn. Children and parents push the eggs along through the grass with wooden spoons.

Where did the colored eggs, cute little bunnies, baby chicks, leg of lamb dinners, and lilies come from? They are all symbols of rebirth and the lamb was a traditional religious sacrifice.

According to the historical records, ‘The ancient Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians, and Hindus all believed the world began with an enormous egg, thus the egg as a symbol of new life has been around for eons. The particulars may vary, but most cultures around the world use the egg as a symbol of new life and rebirth. A notation in the household accounts of Edward I of England showed an expenditure of eighteen pence for 450 eggs to be gold-leafed and colored for Easter gifts.’ The first book to mention Easter eggs by name was written five hundred years ago. Yet, a North African tribe that had become Christian much earlier in time had a custom of coloring eggs at Easter. Long hard winters often meant little food, and a fresh egg for Easter was quite a prize. Later, Christians abstained from eating meat during the Lenten season prior to Easter. Easter was the first chance to enjoy eggs and meat after the long abstinence.

Some European children go from house to house begging for Easter eggs, much like Halloween trick-or-treaters. Called pace-egging, it comes from the old word for Easter, Pasch. Many old cultures also attributed the egg with great healing powers. It is interesting to note that eggs play almost no part in the Easter celebrations of Mexico, South America, and Native American Indian cultures. Egg-rolling contests are a symbolic re-enactment of the rolling away of the stone from Christ's tomb.

The decoration of small leaf-barren branches as Easter egg trees has become a popular custom in the United States since the 1990s.

Easter eggs are mostly made of sugar or marzipan. In recent years, chocolate manufacturing companies such as éclairs and nestle have also expanded their business circle by introducing a collection of chocolate packs in the form of easter eggs that can be gifted to each other. This is how the concept of chocolate eggs became popular on Easter Sunday.