The Symbols of Easter
The egg has long been a symbol of renewal, rebirth and new life. Long before christianty, people celebrated spring with gifts of eggs to symbolise the fact that new life was beginning after months of hardship.
The Christian church adopted the egg as a symbol of Easter becuse it symbolises the renewal of life and the rebirth of Christ when he rose from the dead after three days. It is the promise of new life through faith that is symbolised in the egg. Easter eggs used to be ordinary hens' eggs which were decorated.
Later, eggs were given as gifts to family members and fiends and to make them last, the contents were blown out (a skilled practice) and the shells decorated in elaborate pictures- often showing flowers or other symbols of spring.
The first chocolate eggs were trialled by Cadbury's in the late 19th century. Patterns on the chocolate shell were to hide imperfactions in the chocolate rather than to enhance the egg itself. Now, over 60 million cream eggs are estimated to be sold each year at Easter. The chocolate egg has taken on many twists and turns with some being plain and cheap and others fetching extortionate prices - even a million dollar egg being sold - mind you, it does have a solid golden coin embedded in its shell.
The Easter bunny is an ancient symbol of fertility -not that rabbits do not breed at most time sof the year but there is an undoubted flush of baby bunnies in spring and they are, as we know, a very fertile animal so became the natural symbol of fertility.
Chicks also are a symbol of fertility and blessings on a household. The gift of a young bird in spring meant you would have something to eat later in the year when times were harder (but your chick had become a nice, fat hen or duck!). Because they mainly hatch during spring they too became a symbol of fertility and and associated with Easter.
The traditional Easter cake is the Simnel cake made with flour, seeds, flour, butter and eggs. It has 11 egs on top to represent the 11 true desciples (the 12th being Judas who had betrayed Christ).
Lamb is eaten by many at Easter because it is close to the time of Possover which is a Jewish festival to mark the time when the Angel of the Lord passed over the houses of the Jews with first-born sons, while taking those of the Egyptians in the last and greatest plague during the time of Moses. The Jewish households had lambs' blood smeared around the lintel of their door.
It is important to remermber that chocolate is fine in small doses and Easter has always been celebrated as a feast. However, in past times the feast of Easter would have been celebrated after a period of 40 days of fasting (lent) so a feast would have been welcome and people would have been ready for it. Because we do not forego pleasures leading up to Easter, we should take the 'feasting' side with a little caution.
There is nothing wrong in celebrating Easter however you see fit and chocolate eggs, Easter Bunnies, Church services and family times are very important parts of Easter. What isimportant is to do all this with rememberance of why we actually celebrate and have a holiday at this time - the rebirth of Christ, proof that death holds no fear and is not the end and the promise of life to come.
