Why Decorate Easter Eggs

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Why Decorate Easter Eggs? Angela D. Detter Tuesday, April 14, 1987

Thesis: Easter eggs play an important role in Easter: through decorating them, giving them asgifts, preparing Easter foods with them and using them in games.

Outline

IntroductionI. History

A. Facts

B. Beliefs

II. Customs

A. Decorating

B. Gifts

C. Foods

D. Games

Conclusion

Why Decorating Easter Eggs?

What is the one atheistic symbol that has not lost its true meaning through the years -- Not:In the church, In politics, In philosophy, In society? The Easter egg is the only atheistic symbolwhich has maintained its symbolic meaning.

Just when the Easter egg got into Easter is unknown, but symbolically the egg represents theSpring season (renewal of fertility and the secret of life).1 Even the oval shape is important,because most of the sacred things, from the raindrop to the seed, hold this shape; therefore,Easter Eggs pay tribute to lifes outgrowth.2

One reason why eggs were popular at Easter was because the Christians who observed theLenten season were not supposed to include meat or eggs in their diet. During the forty-day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter, the eggs that were laid by the ducks,chickens, and geese accumulated. To keep them from spoiling, they were stored in nest ofsticks and stones in cool places. They were brought out to be hard-boiled and colored fordecorations and gifts, or eaten as a special treat on Easter Sunday.3

One belief of how the egg became a part of Easter is contained in the tale of a poor Germanmother. She hard-boiled the eggs and dyed them by using things that she found around the house,

(flowers, leaves, cloth, etc.); then she built a little nest in the yard to place the eggs inside. Thenext morning her children discovered the eggs when a rabbit jumped from the nest and hoppedaway. (Here the Easter Bunny also became involved in Easter.) Soon after, children began to

1 Van B. Hooper, eds., Ideals (Milwaukee; Ideals Publishing Company, 1955), p.78.2 Marquerite Ickis, The Book of Festival Holidays (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1964), p.55.3 Romona Richards, eds., Ideals (Nashville: Ideals Publishing Corporation, 1986), p.23.

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Easter Eggs soon became popular as gifts. In Germany, friends would exchange hand-decorated eggs with distinctive traditional designs. These designs, which are passed fromgeneration to generation in some towns and villages, were accompanied by a legend or a verse.In many villages, girls are expected to give their suitors red eggs. Should they fail to have theeggs ready, the boys spank them with canes!14

In Luxembourg, the boys give their sweethearts decorated cakes shaped like a pretzel. If thegirl likes him, she gives him a decorated egg of the same size as the cake on Easter Sunday andwalks with him in the park. If the cake is larger than an ordinary egg then the egg may be achocolate egg or some other egg-shaped creation. Married couples share in this exchange, also.At Leap Year, this custom is reversed.15 Italian children present their priest with eggs on HolySaturday.16 Also on Holy Saturday, in Luxembourg, a similar custom occurs:

It is customary for choir boys to visit from house to house. Everyone receives themwarmly gives presents of eggs and coins. The boys eat the eggs during the Easter Holiday.The money is pooled and used to defray the expenses for an excursion with the priest tosome place of special beauty or historic interest.17

Many people use eggs in their Easter feasts. Italians bake a special cake decorated with EasterEggs. They also take their eggs to church on Easter Eve to be blessed.18 In France, it is astraditional to eat an omelet for Easter morning breakfast as for everyone to wear something new. 19

There are many Easter games which are played with Easter Eggs. Some are as follows:Eirthikken, Pace-egging, Eier-spacken, Eier-doppen, Jarking, Spacken, or egg-tapping, Eirlesenor egg gathering, Egg-wink or burst the egg, Easter Bunnys Egg or pin the egg in the Harespaws, Egg dances, Eierschieben, Canigeln, or egg rolling, Sprinkling of girls with water for eggs,The very old yet famous, egg hunts, And many, many, more.

Therefore, eggs play as important a part in the Easter festivities, as Santa plays in Christmas.

And there are as many different ways to decorate the eggs as there are games to use them.

14 Spicer, p.6115 Spicer, p.106-107.16 Maryjane Hooper Tonn, eds.,Ideals, Milwaukee: Ideals Publishing Corporation, 1972), p.32.17 Spicer, p.108.18 Tonn, p.33.19 Spicer, p.36.

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Bibliography

Hooper, Van B. Eds. Ideals Milwaukee: Ideals Publishing Company, 1955.

Ickis, Marquerite. The Book of Festival Holidays New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1964.

Richards, Ramona, eds. Ideals Nashville: Ideals Publishing Company, 1986.

Sechrist, Elizabeth Hough. Easter, World Book Encyclopedia 6(1978).

Spicer, Dorothy Gladys. Festival of Western Europe New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1958.

Tonn, Maryjane Hooper, eds. Ideals Milwaukee: Ideals Publishing Company, 1972.

Woods, Bruce, eds. Colorful Easter Eggs ... Naturally, Mother Earth News, 80(1983).

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Why Decorate Easter Eggs