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The idea of creating colored Easter eggs is a spring tradition that appears to have predated Easter itself. It’s possible that the practice arose in several parts of the world independently of each other, because the egg can easily be connected to concepts of life and growth.

In the same way that many cultures throughout history have linked fertility cults in general to the arrival of spring, eggs in their turn have been linked to fertility. So eggs have been a part of this yearly celebration since well before the Christian Easter came into being.

The significance of Easter eggs appears to mirror, or maybe even continue, traditions that existed long before they appeared. For example, a pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon spring festival to the goddess Eostre may actually have given the Christian celebration its name.

This goddess appears to have been associated both with the egg and the hare, or rabbit, both of which signified fertility. This might be the origin of the Easter bunny as well. Eggs have been associated with many stories about new life and creation, from China to India to Europe.

In recent years, Easter eggs have taken on a broader cultural connotation and are connected less and less to the origin of Easter itself. For example, the White House Easter Egg Roll is a family event that has been celebrated for over a century, being a partly political event that symbolizes the connection of the President to the general populace.

Egg hunts at parties have become mainly a hunt for prizes and an entertainment for kids. Yet it’s significant that even now, centuries after eggs took on such mythical significance, people still gravitate to them rather than to other objects during spring events that hold special meaning.

To read more Traditional Celebrations With Easter Eggs

The funny thing about Easter is that it is part of several different traditions, such as those of Christians and Early Anglo-Saxons. Christians purport that the reason for the season is to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who told his apostles to go out and spread the word so that mankind may be redeemed.

Early Anglo-Saxons believed in celebrating nature, the goddess of fertility and the changing of the seasons. In the Jewish culture, they celebrate Passover, which relates to the freedom from slavery of their ancestors. In any case, springtime is seen as a rebirth, a new beginning and a time of great hope.

Learning about Easter symbolism involves looking back past its Christian origins. In pagan times, the sun, the moon, gods, goddesses and nature were often worshipped. The vernal equinox was a special time of year because it was one of two days where the sun shone directly vertical from the equator, making the day longer.

With more daytime hours, preparation for the spring harvest could begin and it seemed that love was in the air. The egg was viewed as the ultimate symbol of fertility, as an encapsulation of the great mystery of life. Rabbits, prolific breeders capable of carrying more than one litter of young at a time, also became primary symbols of springtime, of fertility and of Easter.

To read more Knowing More About Easter

Easter is an opportunity for families to come together and celebrate new life each spring, whether religious or not. Christians see this holiday as a time to repent, to acknowledge sins and to celebrate the rebirth of Christ the Savior.

Non-Christians view the Easter holiday as the celebration of fertility, new life and new beginnings, saying goodbye to winter and welcoming springtime. Whether the celebrations involve hot cross buns and chocolate bunnies or prayers and fasting, it is an important part of our calendar year.

The Passover feast is an important part of the traditional Easter celebration. Foods associated with Easter dinner include ham, lamb and eggs. Special soups come out, like hot sour rye, fanesca, borscht and magiritsa, as do special desserts like babka, hot cross buns, pizzelle, pastiera, kulich and simnel cake. Breads like folar, penia, paska and tsoureki are exclusive to this feast as well. The different dishes vary from culture to culture, but worldwide, this feast is one of the largest of the year. 

The Easter holiday is an interesting one because, like many others, it has both Christian and Pagan roots. It is the annual Christian celebration of Christ’s resurrection. Pious traditions include attending mass on Good Friday, Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, as well as fasting, praying, performing good deeds and giving up a sacrifice for Lent (the forty days preceding Easter).

However, even the non-religious celebrate Easter because spring festivals date as far back as the 8th century. In the month of April, Anglo-Saxons celebrated Teutonic, goddess of spring and fertility, with egg rolling contests, gift giving, egg painting and dancing. Similarly, the Phrygians performed Equinox ceremonies to awaken the god Demeter and the Greeks celebrated the Demeter’s daughter Persephone’s return from the underworld as a symbol of new spring life.

To read more Celebrating Easter Holidays

The Easter tradition means many different things to many different cultures and religions. Families celebrating the Jewish Passover focus on prayers, the Seder dinner, spring cleaning and storytelling.

Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus with mass, feasting and a month of preparation. Others enjoy an Easter parade, send cards, go on Easter egg hunts or get photos taken with the Easter bunny.

In 2000, Americans spent $1.9 billion on candy for Easter, which was second only to Halloween at $2 billion, edging out Christmas at $1.4 billion and Valentine’s Day at $1 billion. Even though the initial Easter sweets included hot cross buns and pretzels, the chocolate bunny will be stamped out over 90 million times this year.

Additionally, 4.2 million Peeps and 16 billion Jellybeans will be consumed during Easter Sunday snacking. While chocolate eggs are the most popular Easter candy, they were not manufactured until the 1800s. They are now being made by Cad bury, Reese, Kinder, Lid and many more companies around the world.

Card giving can’t possibly rival Christmas, Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day cards, but Easter is, in fact, the fourth most popular holiday for sending cards, says American Greetings. Like most other cards, the Easter card first came from Victorian era England.

There are Christian Easter cards, Easter Bunny cards or springtime greetings. Today, people may choose from traditional paper cards or free online greeting cards deliverable by email.

To read more The Easter Celebrations In Different Cultures

The holidays are a time for family and food! Next to Thanksgiving, Easter Sunday is one of the greatest feast days of the year. The main dishes may be cooked differently, but most cultures include a lavish item like lamb, goat, roast chicken or ham.

Symbolic foods often make an appearance too. Eggs symbolize Christ’s emergence from the tomb or spring fertility, depending on which school of thought you hail from, and hot cross buns symbolize the crossed arms of Christ as he lay in the tomb, before His resurrection. Around the world, the menus are rich, symbolic and bountiful.

Traveling to Poland, the holidays are both a religious celebration and also a lavish extravaganza full of many rich foods. It is customary to have an Easter basket (”Swieconka Basket”) blessed by the priest, which contains a Paschal Lamb made of bread, cake or butter (symbolizing Jesus as “the Lamb of God”), decorated and plain eggs (symbolizing rebirth), meat like ham or kielbasa sausage, horseradish, bitter herbs (signifying the bitterness of Christ’s suffering), salt (representing hospitality), pussy willow branches (signifying the earth’s awakening), bread (symbolizing communion), and traditional sweet bread like Plotek. Boiled kielbasa sausage, ham, cold cuts, pickled beets, cabbage, green vegetables, potato salad or mashed potatoes with caramelized onion and dill, pound cakes, sweet breads, kolaczi (lamb cake) and babka are traditional fare.

Like Russians and Ukrainians, the Poles are noted for their beautiful style of Easter egg decorating. The Monday after Easter Sunday (”Dyngus Day”) is one of the oldest and rowdiest holidays in the Polish calendar year, where men and women dance to polkas, enjoy a Polish beer, squirt each other with water and whack each other with pussy willow branches to celebrate spring.

The holidays are primarily celebrated with feasting, but also with decorations. The Easter basket is an important tradition for children. Inside the basket, they will find spring-oriented toys like jump ropes, sidewalk chalk and bubbles, as well as activity books and delicious treats like the chocolate bunny, marshmallow peeps and colorful jellybeans.

Kids like to make Easter crafts, which can be hung up in the home and the leafless Easter tree decorated with hollow eggs has become a new fad in America, which originated in Germany. Dyed Easter eggs are made from food color tablets and vinegar. It is also the time of year to decorate oneself in new clothes, according to tradition dating back to Shakespearean times.

To read more The Holidays At Easter Time