The Chocolate Easter Egg: The Beginning

Oftentimes in our lives we become so used to our everyday and every-other-day habits and practices that we forget sometimes to stop and wonder why we do what we do. These habits include everything from shaking hands and high-fives to driving on the right side of the road. One of these frequently and even traditionally practiced mysteries is eating the chocolate Easter egg.

Much like its close cousin, the chocolate Easter bunny, the chocolate Easter egg can be found two weeks a year in literally every store in town. Today, let us learn a bit about the history of the chocolate Easter egg. After all, you can't really believe that one day the Easter bunny laid a chocolate Easter egg, and we've been eating them ever since. The following information will most likely be news to you, and certainly your family members at Easter time this year.

Dating back to the times before Christianity, the festival of spring was a pagan ritual that was celebrated every year the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. The egg itself was for this festival and many others around the same time of year, a symbol of rebirth and fertility.

When Christianity spread, and the Saxons began celebrating the death and subsequent rebirth of Christ, they adopted this spring festival and applied their own celebration to the times. Now the egg was a symbol of the death and rebirth of Jesus Christ and from that time on Easter was the time for celebrating the rebirth and the miracle of Christ's resurrection and fulfillment of His promise.

What About the Egg?

The chocolate Easter egg was sired by the decorative egg. Original eggs that were handed out as gifts were typically duck and goose eggs elaborately colored and painted as decoration. Leave it to the sweet toothed German's and French to transform this beautiful but delicate gift into one of delicious delight. The chocolate Easter egg did first emerge in the early 1800's in Germany and France.

As technology and machinery advanced forward, the process of making the eggs became easier and easier. Finally by the end of the 19th century the chocolate Easter egg was by far the most popular Easter gift in Europe. By the mid to late 1960's, the US had adopted this tradition, and had spread the chocolate Easter egg craze worldwide. Don't go to your Easter party without the knowledge of its history this year!