Easter eggs - their origin, acclaim and evolution from chicken to chocolate
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Loading... - Manger Agnes
- 06 Apr 2023
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A lot of Easter traditions – including hot cross buns and lamb on Sunday – stem from medieval Christian or even earlier pagan beliefs. The chocolate Easter egg, however, is a more modern twist on tradition.
Chicken eggs have been eaten at Easter for centuries. Eggs have long symbolised rebirth and renewal, making them perfect to commemorate the story of Jesus’ resurrection as well as the arrival of spring.
Although nowadays eggs can be eaten during the fasting period of Lent, in the Middle Ages they were prohibited along with meat and dairy. Medieval chefs often found surprising ways around this, even making mock eggs to replace them.
For Easter – a period of celebration – eggs and meat, such as lamb (also a symbol of renewal), were back on the table.
Even once eggs were permitted in fasting meals, they kept a special place in the Easter feast. Seventeenth-century cookbook author John Murrell recommended “egges with greene sawce”, a sort of pesto made with sorrel leaves.
Across Europe, eggs were also given as a titheto the local church on Good Friday. This might be where the idea of giving eggs as a gift comes from. The practice died out in many Protestant areas after the Reformation, but some English villages kept the tradition going until the 19th century.
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Painting eggs has been a tradition for hundreds of years.
It’s not known exactly when people started to decorate their eggs, but research has pointed to the 13th century, when King Edward I gave his courtiers eggs wrapped in gold leaf.
A few centuries later, we know that people across Europe were dyeing their eggs different colours. They usually chose yellow, using onion peel, or red, using madder roots or beetroots. The red eggs are thought to symbolise the blood of Christ. One 17th-century author suggested this practice went as far back as early Christians in Mesopotamia, but it’s hard to know for sure. Read More…
