You might find it strange that chickens' offspring have come to be associated with the resurrection of Christ, but it actually makes sense. People have been celebrating spring and the renewal of the seasons with eggs for thousands of years, long before Christianity was an organized religion.
Eggs symbolize fertility and new life, and the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Persians all used dyed eggs in their spring celebrations. It was only natural that the tradition be incorporated into the Christian holiday, which also focuses on rebirth and renewal.
OK, so eggs and Easter have been partners for a while, but how did chocolate get involved? It's impossible to say who invented the chocolate egg, but these confections started appearing in France and Germany in the early 19th century. The first were solid dark chocolate eggs that tasted grainy, coarse and bitter. The truth is, chocolate wasn't really all that great back then. It contained around 50 percent fat , which made it incredibly hard to digest.
Confectioners were forced to add various starches and other ingredients to make chocolate more palatable. In , however, the Cadbury chocolate company imported a revolutionary press that cut out half the candy's fat content, making a smoother, better-tasting form of dark chocolate.
The press also allowed the company to easily mold its chocolate. In Egypt, egg decorating features in the springtime festival of Sham el-Nessim. In Poland, pisanki , or decorated eggs, predates the arrival of the first Christians. You can recycle your Easter egg wrappers Did you know you could recycle your Easter chocolate aluminium wrappers?
The decorated egg found its way into Christianity, where it came to represent the resurrection of Jesus from his tomb. Natural dyes like onion skin and beetroot were used to colour eggs, which were sometimes etched with elaborate patterns.
A tradition since , entry to the annual egg roll is now allocated via a lottery system. Of the 50 produced, the location of 43 is known. Handmade chocolate Easter eggs date from the early 19 th century. Advances in manufacturing led to the mass-production of hollow chocolate eggs in the s by British chocolateurs J. Like eggs, hares and rabbits have a long symbolic association with fertility. So, how can you tell a good egg? Opt for a smaller egg, made with better quality chocolate — one that doesn't include vegetable oil on the ingredients list.
Today, it may seem we're more separated from the rhyme and rhythm of the seasons. But as you snap off a bit of your chocolate shell, you are in fact continuing a springtime millennia-old tradition. Christians now celebrate the Easter Vigil service.
The symbols of the Norse goddess Ostara were the hare and the egg, both representing fertility. The earthly symbol for the goddess Eastre, goddess of the dawn, was also the rabbit, a symbol of new life. Historians believe the legend of the Easter Bunny originated in Germany before surfacing in the New World in the seventeenth century. Children believed the Easter Bunny would leave them coloured eggs if they were good, and left out their Easter bonnets and caps for the gifts.
The egg has been a symbol of rebirth and fertility for many centuries. Long before Christianity was introduced, eggs were painted with bright colours to celebrate the sunlight of spring. Decorating and colouring Easter eggs was a popular custom in the middle ages, and throughout Europe different cultures have evolved their own styles and colours.
In Greece, crimson-coloured Easter eggs are exchanged, whereas in Eastern Europe and Russia silver and gold decorations are common, and Austrian Easter eggs often have plant and fern designs. It featured a small gold egg in an outside shell of platinum and enamel. Easter eggs have been coloured and decorated from earliest times. In Edward I's household accounts for there is an entry of:.
Later, craftsmen made artificial eggs of silver and gold, ivory or porcelain, often inlaid with jewels. Today, these superb creations are precious museum pieces. By the 19th century cardboard eggs covered with silk, lace or velvet and fastened with ribbon were fashionable. In Europe Easter eggs are taken seriously. The old art of decorating the real egg is still very much alive. Many of them are dyed red to symbolise Christ's blood. The chocolate Easter egg has developed from the simple type wrapped in paper to the beribboned variety wrapped in brightest foil and packed in a box or basket.
The first chocolate Easter eggs were made in Europe in the early 19th Century with France and Germany taking the lead in this new artistic confectionery. A type of eating chocolate had been invented a few years earlier but it could not be successfully moulded. Some early eggs were solid while the production of the first hollow chocolate eggs must have been rather painstaking as the moulds were lined with paste chocolate one at a time! John Cadbury made his first 'French eating Chocolate' in but it was not until that the first Cadbury Easter Eggs were made.
This may have been because he was not sufficiently impressed with continental eggs to wish to compete with them or because he was too busy with other aspects of his growing business.
In fact, progress in the chocolate Easter egg market was very slow until a method was found of making the chocolate flow into the moulds. The modern chocolate Easter egg with its smoothness, shape and flavour owes its progression to the two greatest developments in the history of chocolate - the invention of a press for separating cocoa butter from the cocoa bean by the Dutch inventor Van Houten in and the introduction of a pure cocoa by Cadbury Brothers in The Cadbury process made large quantities of cocoa butter available and this was the secret of making moulded chocolate or indeed, any fine eating chocolate.
The earliest Cadbury chocolate eggs were made of 'dark' chocolate with a plain smooth surface and were filled with dragees. The earliest 'decorated eggs' were plain shells enhanced by chocolate piping and marzipan flowers.
Decorative skill and variety soon followed and by there were no less than 19 different lines on the Cadbury Brothers Easter list in the UK. Richard Cadbury's artistic skill undoubtedly played an important part in the development of the Easter range.
Many of his designs were based on French, Dutch and German originals adapted to Victorian tastes.
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