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- Feb 19, 2001
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people dye hardboiled eggs? My neighbor's daughter asked me this yesterday and I went looking on the internet for the answer. Pretty interesting-
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Easter Egg is associated with beliefs of particularly ancient origin. The egg was an important symbol in the mythologies of many early civilizations, including those of India and Egypt. It was commonly believed that the universe developed from a great egg and that the halves of its shell corresponded to Heaven and earth. The egg was also connected with the springtime fertility rituals of many pre-Christian and Indo-European peoples, like the old Cretans, and both the Egyptians and the Persians made a practice of coloring eggs in the spring. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Greeks mainly color eggs red (scarlet) to signify the blood of Christ. They use hard-boiled eggs (painted red on Holy Thursday) which are baked into twisted sweet-bread loaves or distributed on Easter Sunday; people rap their eggs against their friends' eggs and the owner of the last uncracked egg is considered lucky.[/font]
In Britian Easter eggs are a very old tradition going to a time before Christianity. Eggs are a good symbol of Spring and new life. Before they were replaced by chocolate Easter eggs real eggs were used. These would be decorated with bright paints.
In the north of England, for example as at Preston in Lancashire, there is the custom of egg rolling. Hard boiled eggs are rolled down slopes to see whose egg goes furthest. In other places a game similar to conkers is played. You hold an egg in the palm of the hand and bang against your opponent's egg. The loser is the one whose egg breaks first. Another popular game is hunting eggs which have been hidden around the garden.
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Easter Egg is associated with beliefs of particularly ancient origin. The egg was an important symbol in the mythologies of many early civilizations, including those of India and Egypt. It was commonly believed that the universe developed from a great egg and that the halves of its shell corresponded to Heaven and earth. The egg was also connected with the springtime fertility rituals of many pre-Christian and Indo-European peoples, like the old Cretans, and both the Egyptians and the Persians made a practice of coloring eggs in the spring. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Greeks mainly color eggs red (scarlet) to signify the blood of Christ. They use hard-boiled eggs (painted red on Holy Thursday) which are baked into twisted sweet-bread loaves or distributed on Easter Sunday; people rap their eggs against their friends' eggs and the owner of the last uncracked egg is considered lucky.[/font]
In Britian Easter eggs are a very old tradition going to a time before Christianity. Eggs are a good symbol of Spring and new life. Before they were replaced by chocolate Easter eggs real eggs were used. These would be decorated with bright paints.
In the north of England, for example as at Preston in Lancashire, there is the custom of egg rolling. Hard boiled eggs are rolled down slopes to see whose egg goes furthest. In other places a game similar to conkers is played. You hold an egg in the palm of the hand and bang against your opponent's egg. The loser is the one whose egg breaks first. Another popular game is hunting eggs which have been hidden around the garden.
