S4C - DUDLEY

EASTER

For many of us, Easter signifies the end of gloomy and cold winter months and the beginning of much warmer weather.

For centuries, the egg has been regarded as the most appropriate symbol to be associated with Easter because it symbolises the advent of new life, which in turn represents the commencement of spring and the resurrection of Christ. Indeed, in ancient times the Romans and Egyptians exchanged eggs to denote the continuation of life following death.

The egg as a symbol of fertility and rebirth has origins in Pagan worship whilst the term Easter itself is derived from the word Eostre, which was the name given to the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn and spring. Here also lie the origins of the Easter Bunny due to the hare being one of the symbols most associated with Eostre. The Saxons believed that Eostre had a pet hare that laid eggs at Easter!

The egg quickly became most significant to the Christian faith, so much so in fact that, in early Mesopotamia, children would stain as many eggs that they could get their hands on with red dye so as to commemorate the blood of Christ on the anniversaries of his death. Furthermore, Christians adopted the egg to symbolise the stone that covered the entrance to Christs sepulchre.

In addition to red, eggs were also coloured in green and yellow to signify the spring and new life. The exchanging of eggs quickly grew in popularity and it is suggested that it was the English Crusaders who brought back this custom to Britain following their battles and travels abroad.

By the time of Edward I s reign in the 13th Century, it was customary on Easter Sunday in Britain to give gifts of coloured hard-boiled eggs to relatives and friends.

It is said that King Henry VIII was bestowed an Easter egg presented in a silver case as a gift from the Pope of that time.

At Easter, families would take baskets full of hard-boiled eggs to the local church to be blessed. The holy eggs would then be brought home and placed at the centre of the dinner table and were often painted or coloured. The eggs would be on display throughout Easter week, offered as gifts to visitors and finally eaten on Easter Sunday thus drawing a close on the Lenten Fast.

There were several superstitions associated with eggs during the Easter celebrations. It was claimed that eggs laid on Good Friday would remain permanently fresh whilst good fortune would be honoured to those who ate (on the same day) eggs that were laid on Good Friday or Easter Sunday. Furthermore, eggs laid on these days were claimed to have medicinal properties and were used to cure ailments.

Games featuring eggs became popular amongst children at Easter. Egg rolling was the most popular, where children would roll their eggs down a hill with the last remaining uncracked egg, or the one that travels the furthest without breaking, winning a prize. This Easter tradition still exists in parts of Britain and, since 1878, it has been customary for the President of the USA to partake in egg rolling with children on the White House lawn. Egg rolling is, in Christian terms, is said to represent the rolling away of the stone from Jesus tomb.

Other games included pace eggs (pace is derived from the Jewish term Passover), which was similar to conkers in that the object was to smash your opponents egg; whilst hunting eggs around the garden provided children with the opportunity to accumulate as many eggs as they could find. Also, families and church groups would hold competitions to find the best decorated eggs.

Egg shaped toys replaced the hard-boiled variety in the 17th and 18th centuries and, by the 19th century, children would receive mock eggs made out of cardboard and satin, which were filled with chocolates and sweets.

The first wholly chocolate eggs (filled with sweets) were made from dark chocolate in 1873 by Cadbury, who subsequently launched the first Dairy Milk eggs in 1905.

The rest, as they say, is history, with the sales of chocolate eggs today accounting for approximately 8% of all annual chocolate sales. Indeed, such is the popularity of the Cadburys Crème Egg that over 300 million are produced each year!