Easter Eggs and traditions

jonniebgood1

I thought a light hearted thread would add balance to the forum so what better than the history of Easter eggs, Easter bunnies or other Easter traditions. I start with the presumption that Easter eggs go back further than the Chocolate companies that currently profit from them (note to my brain: Buy Easter egg for wife!). So where do eggs and bunnies come into the history of Easter and are they linked, Rabbits don't lay eggs after all.

I have found reference to Candy eggs back in The Puritan, (April to September 1900) there is actually a decent description of how eggs associated with decoration have become common by the time of publication (1900). http://books.google.ie/books?id=yWRr8MnGI7EC&pg=PA119&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
It seems to be associated with an egg hunt?

And is this the reason for the association between Easter and eggs?: The article says "probably".

It was during Easter that the consumption of eggs resumed after the strict Lenten fast. Eggs were thus a mainstay of Easter meals, and a prized Easter gift for children and servants. And this is probably the reason why eggs came to be associated with Easter. http://www.theholidayspot.com/easter/history/icons/easter_egg.htm

tac foley

In our house we have the Easter Vulture.

Best not to ask why.

tac

Ostrom

"We beseech thee, O lord, that the grace of thy blessing may come upon these eggs thy creatures: that they may be wholesome food to thy faithful people taking them and rendering thanks to thee for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ"

- Prayer appointed by Pope Paul V (1552 - 1621) for the use of the English during mass at Easter

From a quick google scholar

jonniebgood1

The Easter bunny then seems to be actually an Easter hare in history. But why is the hare then linked to Easter. I take the following from the Atlantic publication from May 1890- its a bit random:

we
have still to run down the mythical hare;
and him we ind directly as a type of
the moon itself, across whose disc end¬
less numbers of Hindu and Japanese ar¬
tists have painted him, while their Chi¬
nese brethren represent the moon as a
rabbit pounding rice in a mortar. The
hare was identical with the moon in sym-
bology, for reasons that shall presently
be explained; but having been drawn
"in the moon," two diferent versions of
one story arose to explain his presence
there, as in the case of the barnacle
geese.
One was that Buddha once took the
shape of a hare that he might feed a
hungry fellow-creature, and was trans¬
lated in that form to the moon, where
he evermore abides. But this is a very
inferior version of the beautiful story of
the starving tigress and her cubs, whom
Buddha fed with his mortal body ; and
the second myth, as told by De Guberna-
tis in his Zoological Mythology, seems
more likely to be the genuine one. This
legend says that when Indra, disguised
as a famishing pilgrim, was praying for
food, the hare, having nothing else to
give him, threw itself into the ire, that
it might be roasted for his beneit, and
the grateful Indra translated the animal
to the moon.

The , hare-myth has come over to
America not only in the shape of the
confectioners' Easter hares, but also in
the very curious superstition among the
negroes as to the eicacy as a talisman of
the'left hind-foot of a graveyard rab¬
bit killed in the dark of the moon. In
an article by Mr. Gerald Massey1 (to
whom I gratefully acknowledge my ob¬
ligations) on the subject of such a talis¬
man, said to have been presented by an
old negro to President Cleveland dur¬
ing his electioneering tour of 1888, Mr.
Massey very plainly shows that the two
myths have the same origin. The rab¬
bit, identical with the hare in symbolism,
is here equivalent to the Lord of Light
and Conqueror of Darkness, in, or as,
the new moon.

So whether the hare comes from Buddha or elsewhere (I've read other explanations) I still dont see why it changes to the Easter bunny?

jonniebgood1

In a different vein, coming from the egg association are the Fabergé eggs. If you were to get one of these for Easter you could retire.

Here is the 1898 lillies of the valley example:

I saw some of these in the Armoury and they are beyond belief. The photo does not do it justice- the detail... . The eggs were gifts, usually at Eastertide (although not always) and began with a present of one from the Russian Tsar to his wife:

Crafted in the shops of Peter Carl Fabergé from 1885 to 1917, the eggs were designed primarily at the behest of Russian Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II as annual Easter gifts for Tsarinas Maria and Alexandra.
One of the most glittering examples is the Winter Egg, presented to Maria by her son Nicholas II on Easter 1913. Studded with 3,000 diamonds, the egg sold at a 1994 auction for U.S. $5.6 million and was resold eight years later for $9.6 million.

Not all of the eggs were made for the Russian imperial family. Alexander Kelch, a Russian gold magnate and industrialist, gave his wife Barbara seven eggs between 1898 and 1904. The Duchess of Marlborough, formerly Consuelo Vanderbilt and the wealthiest young woman at the turn of the 20th century, also commissioned an egg of her own.

According to Christel McCanless—co-author with Will Lowes of the 2001 work Fabergé Eggs: A Retrospective Encyclopedia (Scarecrow Press)—the workmanship embodied in each egg has no modern equivalent.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0408_040407_fabergeeggs.html

And the winter egg (1913) referenced in the article above, photos showing it appearing on a Finnish stamp:

jonniebgood1

I read of this Irish Easter tradition and think it would be a novel idea for a modern 'alehouse' to try and boost its business. The report quoted dates back to 1642, 360 years ago and it would still work.

On the feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide, as also on
those of patron saints, in several Irish parishes, about
1682, as we are told by Sir Henry Piers, the meaner sort
of people assembled in the evening on some spot of
ground convenient to an alehouse. Here they danced for
a cake provided by the landlady. It was placed on a
board, fastened to a pike or pole, and about ten feet in
height over the ground. From the board hung a garland,
set round with meadow-lowers, if it were early summer
time; but apples, fastened on pegs, were stuck around
the garland, if it happened to be late in the year. A
piper was usually in attendance; and while he played for
them, the whole number of dancers formed in a ring. A
man and woman were told of as partners, while all
danced about the bush—as the garland was called—and
around the piper. The couple holding out longest—
" The gentle pair that simply sought renown,
By holding out to tire each other down "—
then were declared winners of the cake and apples. Thus the alewife plied her business very briskly, before- the assembled dancers departed for the night.

Extract taken from page 203 of 'Irish folk lore: traditions and superstitions of the country'.
By John O'Hanlon, published 1870.

Sir Henry Piers- http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I166745&tree=Nixon

byhookorbycrook

What about the tradition that no-one could marry during Lent?The Skelligs kept a different calendar and it was said you could still marry there after Shrove Tuesday.Later on a satirical list of the unmarried called the "Skelligs list" was compiled by local wags. On the first sunday in Lent, local boys would mark the coats of the unmarried men, hence the day was known as Chalk Sunday or "Pus(as in the Irish for "a face") sunday.

jonniebgood1

From eggs to Chocolate eggs is a bit of a jump, why would anyone make an egg out of chocolate?

Chocolate eggs were first produced in Germany and France and date back to the early 19th century. The custom of giving chocolate eggs at Easter spread throughout Europe and the western world. Conceived before techniques for mass-producing moulded chocolate had been invented, the first eggs were small, solid and made from dark, bitter chocolate. The first hollow chocolate eggs were produced by painstakingly lining each mould with chocolate paste.

J.S. Fry and Sons of Bristol created the UK’s first Easter egg in 1873. Cadbury soon followed suit, creating their first egg in 1875. This was made from a single dark chocolate shell (rather than two half shells as is common today) and filled with sugared almonds. In 1905 Cadbury launched a milk chocolate Easter egg. http://www.festivalchocolate.co.uk/2012/03/easter-and-the-chocolate-connection/