Easter egg hunts, Easter egg baskets, Easter egg decorating... many children and parents around the world celebrate the risen Lord with Easter egg events and decorating.
The Easter egg itself is a Christian tradition although decorated eggs have been found in Africa from thousands of years ago and in Persia around 3000 B.C. people dyed eggs red to be given as gifts to celebrate the first day of spring.
This tradition of given dyed red eggs is one the Christians took on to symbolize the blood of Christ and the hatching of the egg is to symbolize the resurrection. This is a by-product of Lent because families who celebrate Lent give up eating eggs during the days before Easter.
Easter eggs were decorated by dyes made from onion peels, tree bark, flower pedals and juices extracted from fruit and veggies. My mother and her family brought their Latvian tradition of dying the eggs with onion peels with them to America. Our family has kept that tradition. The eggs are so pretty when colored with the different onion skins.
Simply boil onion skins in water and then allow the eggs to soak in the dye until you get the desired result. The longer you leave them in the dye the darker the color.
The world's largest Easter egg in the Guinness World of Records was made out of chocolate in no where else but Belgium in 2005. This egg weighed more than 2,600 pounds. Now that is some chocolate!!
The most valuable Easter eggs were crafted in the 1800's and made for the Russian czar families for Easter gifts. They are worth millions of dollars are are embellished with jewels. It is said that only 65 of these were ever made.
The White House Easter Egg Roll is the only time in which you are allowed on the White House lawn if you are a tourist. Every Monday after Easter the White House allows about 4,000 children to take part in this event. This tradition was started by Dolly Madison at the Capital lawn in 1878.
The PAAS Dye Co. started selling Easter egg dyes in the 1880's. They sold a packet of 5 colors for 5 cents. PAAS now says that they sell over 10 million kits every year which also now includes stickers, decorations and more. They state that consumers decorate over 180 million eggs every year.
The most beautiful Easter eggs are the Ukranian eggs that have very intricate patterns that are put on the eggs with wax before dying. Each egg takes 2 to 3 hours to complete.
And what to do with all those hard boiled Easter eggs after they have been gathered? Well, make deviled eggs of course:)!
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