A rare and vintage pack of mini Easter eggs from the '70s
EGGSVILLE, USA 12 MINIATURE FILL 'N' THRILL TOY EASTER EGGS
DETAILS:
All you do is add the fun!The EGGsville, USA bag of 12 mini Fill 'N' Thrill Toy Easter Eggs is the vintage-ness you're looking for. Like the tag line says "All you do is add the fun!" and you've got yourself a great Easter ahead. The miniature size is perfect for smaller treats and prizes like: bite-size candies, groups of button-size or smaller candies (M&M's, Skittles, Nerdz, jelly beans, etc), mini toy machine figurines, costume jewelry, or even change or folded up dollar bills. In the fishnet bag are 12 fillable mini plastic eggs in 6 different colors including 2 kelly green eggs, 2 yellow eggs (1 appears more fluorescent), 2 orange eggs, 2 azure blue eggs, 2 amethyst purple eggs, and 2 hot pink eggs. These lightweight, thin plastic toy eggs were made of quality plastic in the United States beginning in the 1960s by Peoria Plastics Company, a division of Bleyer Industries, Inc. Though the quality is unmatched these mini EGGsville, USA eggs are quite thin and delicate (like an real egg) - it's amazing these have survived all these years and decades.
Ultra-rare mini size!
You don't find these everyday, especially in such great condition as they are delicate and most kids destroyed them.
Dimensions:
Approximately 1-3/4" x 1-5/16"
Retired and rare!
This 12-count pack of EGGsville, USA fillable mini Easter eggs was manufactured some time in the 1970s (possibly early '80s) by the wonderful plastics brand Peoria Plastics, a division of Bleyer Industries, Inc. Not to be confused with Peoria, Arizona the Peoria Plastics original factory was located in Peoria, Illinois, where a variety of quality seasonal and home goods were constructed of plastic by a great workforce and machinery. Peoria
Plastics/Bleyer Industries added more factories as plastics demand grew
and they soon became the leading brand for plastic Easter eggs. According to a mention in a 1986 newspaper article informing locals of a new toy line (Roxie & Rick) and 40 added jobs at SCG Toy Co., the recently renamed company was "...formerly Peoria Plastic." By the late '90s Peoria/SCG Toy Co. had begun the inevitable fight to stay in operation as China manufacturers had started to take over much of the United States' seasonal item and plastic production needs. Most Easter eggs today are still made in China, not the U.S.A., which is what made Eggsville, USA eggs so great. The quality put into each product: their proprietary molds, the great designs, the high-quality materials, all played a role in putting Peoria Plastics Co./ Bleyer Industries, Inc. and Illinois on the manufacturing map. Today EGGsville, USA is no more which makes them collectible and much harder to find as the years go on - and many didn't last after being manhandled by children. The only way to get your paws on some of the best quality, vintage Easter eggs today is to seek them out on auction sites.
CONDITION:
Like-new; new old stock (NOS). Sealed in net bag. One half of an orange egg has a small radiating crack near the edge. We didn't get a clear photo of the crack but it is visible in photo #5. Please see photos.
To ensure safe delivery all items are carefully packaged before shipping out.
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*ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT ARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF SIDEWAYS STAIRS CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.*
"Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs,[1] are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tradition, which continues to be used in Central and Eastern Europe, is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs.
Although eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility and rebirth,[2] in Christianity, for the celebration of Eastertide, Easter eggs symbolize the empty tomb of Jesus, from which Jesus was resurrected.[3][4][5] In addition, one ancient tradition was the staining of Easter eggs with the colour red "in memory of the blood of Christ, shed as at that time of his crucifixion."[3][6]
This custom of the Easter egg, according to many sources, can be traced to early Christians of Mesopotamia, and from there it spread into Eastern Europe and Siberia through the Orthodox Churches, and later into Europe through the Catholic and Protestant Churches.[6][7][8][9] Mediaevalist scholars normally conclude that the custom of Easter eggs has its roots in the prohibition of eggs during Lent after which, on Easter, they have been blessed for the occasion.[10][11]
A modern custom in some places is to substitute chocolate eggs wrapped in coloured foil, hand-carved wooden eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as chocolate.
History
The practice of decorating eggshells is quite ancient,[12] with decorated, engraved ostrich eggs found in Africa which are 60,000 years old.[13] In the pre-dynastic period of Egypt and the early cultures of Mesopotamia and Crete, eggs were associated with death and rebirth, as well as with kingship, with decorated ostrich eggs, and representations of ostrich eggs in gold and silver, were commonly placed in graves of the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians as early as 5,000 years ago.[14] These cultural relationships may have influenced early Christian and Islamic cultures in those areas, as well as through mercantile, religious, and political links from those areas around the Mediterranean.[15]
Red-coloured Easter egg with Christian cross, from the Saint Kosmas Aitolos Greek Orthodox Monastery
Eggs in Christianity carry a Trinitarian symbolism as shell, yolk, and albumen are three parts of one egg.[16] According to many sources, the Christian custom of Easter eggs was adopted from Persian Nowruz tradition into the early Christians of Mesopotamia, who stained them with red colouring "in memory of the blood of Christ, shed at His crucifixion".[7][17][6][8][9] The Christian Church officially adopted the custom, regarding the eggs as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus, with the Roman Ritual, the first edition of which was published in 1610 but which has texts of much older date, containing among the Easter Blessings of Food, one for eggs, along with those for lamb, bread, and new produce.[8][9]
Lord, let the grace of your blessing + come upon these eggs, that they be healthful food for your faithful who eat them in thanksgiving for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever.
Sociology professor Kenneth Thompson discusses the spread of the Easter egg throughout Christendom, writing that "use of eggs at Easter seems to have come from Persia into the Greek Christian Churches of Mesopotamia, thence to Russia and Siberia through the medium of Orthodox Christianity. From the Greek Church the custom was adopted by either the Roman Catholics or the Protestants and then spread through Europe."[7] Both Thompson, as well as British orientalist Thomas Hyde state that in addition to dyeing the eggs red, the early Christians of Mesopotamia also stained Easter eggs green and yellow.[6][7]
Peter Gainsford maintains that the association between eggs and Easter most likely arose in western Europe during the Middle Ages as a result of the fact that Catholic Christians were prohibited from eating eggs during Lent, but were allowed to eat them when Easter arrived.[10][11]
Influential 19th century folklorist and philologist Jacob Grimm speculates, in the second volume of his Deutsche Mythologie, that the folk custom of Easter eggs among the continental Germanic peoples may have stemmed from springtime festivities of a Germanic goddess known in Old English as Ēostre (namesake of modern English Easter) and possibly known in Old High German as *Ostara (and thus namesake of Modern German Ostern 'Easter'). However, despite Grimm's speculation, there is no evidence to connect eggs with Ostara.[11] The use of eggs as favors or treats at Easter originated when they were prohibited during Lent.[10][11] A common practice in England in the medieval period was for children to go door-to-door begging for eggs on the Saturday before Lent began. People handed out eggs as special treats for children prior to their fast.[11]
Although one of the Christian traditions are to use dyed or painted chicken eggs, a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with candy such as jelly beans; as many people give up sweets as their Lenten sacrifice, individuals enjoy them at Easter after having abstained from them during the preceding forty days of Lent.[18] These eggs can be hidden for children to find on Easter morning, which may be left by the Easter Bunny. They may also be put in a basket filled with real or artificial straw to resemble a bird's nest.
Traditions and customs
Main articles: Egg decorating, Pisanica (Croatian), Pysanka, and Święconka
Croatian Easter basket
Blessing of Easter foods in Poland
Red coloured Easter eggs
Lenten tradition
The Easter egg tradition may also have merged into the celebration of the end of the privations of Lent. Traditionally, eggs are among the foods forbidden fast days, including all of Lent, an observance which continues among the Eastern Christian Churches but has fallen into disuse in Western Christianity (although something similar has recently been instituted by a few as the “Daniel Fast").
Historically, it has been traditional to use up all of the household's eggs before Lent began.
This established the tradition of Pancake Day being celebrated on Shrove Tuesday. This day, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday when Lent begins, is also known as Mardi Gras, a French phrase which translates as "Fat Tuesday" to mark the last consumption of eggs and dairy before Lent begins.
In the Orthodox Church, Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, rather than Wednesday, so the household's dairy products would be used up in the preceding week, called Cheesefare Week.
During Lent, since chickens would not stop producing eggs during this time, a larger than usual store might be available at the end of the fast. This surplus, if any, had to be eaten quickly to prevent spoiling. Then, with the coming of Easter, the eating of eggs resumes. Some families cook a special meatloaf with eggs in it to be eaten with the Easter dinner.
One would have been forced to hard boil the eggs that the chickens produced so as not to waste food, and for this reason the Spanish dish hornazo (traditionally eaten on and around Easter) contains hard-boiled eggs as a primary ingredient. In Hungary, eggs are used sliced in potato casseroles around the Easter period.
Symbolism and related customs
Some Christians symbolically link the cracking open of Easter eggs with the empty tomb of Jesus.[19]
In the Orthodox churches, Easter eggs are blessed by the priest at the end of the Paschal Vigil (which is equivalent to Holy Saturday), and distributed to the faithful. The egg is seen by followers of Christianity as a symbol of resurrection: while being dormant it contains a new life sealed within it.[3][4]
Similarly, in the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, the so-called święconka, i.e. blessing of decorative baskets with a sampling of Easter eggs and other symbolic foods, is one of the most enduring and beloved Polish traditions on Holy Saturday.
During Paschaltide, in some traditions the Pascal greeting with the Easter egg is even extended to the deceased. On either the second Monday or Tuesday of Pascha, after a memorial service people bring blessed eggs to the cemetery and bring the joyous paschal greeting, "Christ has risen", to their beloved departed (see Radonitza).
In Greece, women traditionally dye the eggs with onion skins and vinegar on Thursday (also the day of Communion). These ceremonial eggs are known as kokkina avga. They also bake tsoureki for the Easter Sunday feast.[20] Red Easter eggs are sometimes served along the centerline of tsoureki (braided loaf of bread).[21][22]
In Egypt, it is a tradition to decorate boiled eggs during Sham el-Nessim holiday, which falls every year after the Eastern Christian Easter.
Coincidentally, every Passover, Jews place a hard-boiled egg on the Passover ceremonial plate, and the celebrants also eat hard-boiled eggs dipped in salt water as part of the ceremony.
Colouring
Easter eggs before and after colouring
Heated wax paint used to decorate traditional Easter Eggs in the Czech Republic
The dyeing of Easter eggs in different colours is commonplace, with colour being achieved through boiling the egg in natural substances (such as, onion peel (brown colour), oak or alder bark or walnut nutshell (black), beet juice (pink) etc.), or using artificial colourings.
A greater variety of colour was often provided by tying on the onion skin with different coloured woollen yarn. In the North of England these are called pace-eggs or paste-eggs, from a dialectal form of Middle English pasche. King Edward I's household accounts in 1290 list an item of ‘one shilling and sixpence for the decoration and distribution of 450 Pace-eggs!’,[23] which were to be coloured or gilded and given to members of the royal household.[24] Traditionally in England, eggs were wrapped in onion skins and boiled to make their shells look like mottled gold, or wrapped in flowers and leaves first in order to leave a pattern, which parallels a custom practised in traditional Scandinavian culture.[25] Eggs could also be drawn on with a wax candle before staining, often with a person's name and date on the egg.[24] Pace Eggs were generally eaten for breakfast on Easter Sunday breakfast. Alternatively, they could be kept as decorations, used in egg-jarping (egg tapping) games, or given to Pace Eggers. In more recent centuries in England, eggs have been stained with coffee grains[24] or simply boiled and painted in their shells.[26]
In the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, Easter eggs are dyed red to represent the blood of Christ, with further symbolism being found in the hard shell of the egg symbolizing the sealed Tomb of Christ — the cracking of which symbolized his resurrection from the dead. The tradition of red easter eggs was used by the Russian Orthodox Church.[27] The tradition to dyeing the easter eggs in an Onion tone exists in the cultures of Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Russia, Czechia, Romania, Slovenia, and Israel.[28] The colour is made by boiling onion peel in water.[29][30]
Patterning
When boiling them with onion skins, leaves can be attached prior to dyeing to create leaf patterns. The leaves are attached to the eggs before they are dyed with a transparent cloth to wrap the eggs with like inexpensive muslin or nylon stockings, leaving patterns once the leaves are removed after the dyeing process.[31][32] These eggs are part of Easter custom in many areas and often accompany other traditional Easter foods. Passover haminados are prepared with similar methods.
Pysanky[33] are Ukrainian Easter eggs, decorated using a wax-resist (batik) method. The word comes from the verb pysaty, "to write", as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax.
Decorating eggs for Easter using wax resistant batik is a popular method in some other eastern European countries.
Use of Easter eggs in decorations
In some Mediterranean countries, especially in Lebanon, chicken eggs are boiled and decorated by dye and/or painting and used as decoration[34] around the house. Then, on Easter Day, young kids would duel with them saying 'Christ is resurrected, Indeed, He is', breaking and eating them. This also happens in Georgia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. In Easter Sunday friends and family hit each other's egg with their own. The one whose egg does not break is believed to be in for good luck in the future.
In Germany, eggs decorate trees and bushes as Easter egg trees, and in several areas public wells as Osterbrunnen.
There used to be a custom in Ukraine, during Easter celebrations to have krashanky on a table in a bowl with wheatgrass. The number of the krashanky equalled the number of departed family members.[35]
Ukrainian Easter eggs
Ukrainian Easter eggs
Easter eggs from Sorbs
Easter eggs from Sorbs
Easter eggs from Lithuania
Easter eggs from Lithuania
Perforated egg from Germany, Sleeping Beauty
Perforated egg from Germany, Sleeping Beauty
Norwegian Easter eggs
Norwegian Easter eggs
Easter eggs from Greece
Easter eggs from Greece
Perforated eggs
Perforated eggs
Easter eggs from France
Easter eggs from France
American Easter egg from the White House Washington, D.C.
American Easter egg from the White House Washington, D.C.
Pace eggs boiled with onion skins and leaf patterns.
Pace eggs boiled with onion skins and leaf patterns.
Easter eggs decorated with straw
Easter eggs decorated with straw
Easter egg from Poland
Easter egg from Poland
Washi egg from Japan
Washi egg from Japan
Easter egg games
Eggs hidden for an Easter egg hunt
Egg hunts
An egg hunt is a game in which decorated eggs, which may be hard-boiled chicken eggs, chocolate eggs, or artificial eggs containing candies, are hidden for children to find. The eggs often vary in size, and may be hidden both indoors and outdoors.[36] When the hunt is over, prizes may be given for the largest number of eggs collected, or for the largest or the smallest egg.[36]
Some central European nations (Czechs and Slovaks etc.) have a tradition of gathering eggs by gaining them from the females in return of whipping them with a pony-tail shaped whip made out of fresh willow branches and splashing them with water, by the Ruthenians called polivanja, which is supposed to give them health and beauty.
Cascarones, a Latin American tradition now shared by many US States with high Hispanic demographics, are emptied and dried chicken eggs stuffed with confetti and sealed with a piece of tissue paper. The eggs are hidden in a similar tradition to the American Easter egg hunt and when found the children (and adults) break them over each other's heads.
In order to enable children to take part in egg hunts despite visual impairment, eggs have been created that emit various clicks, beeps, noises, or music so that visually impaired children can easily hunt for Easter eggs.[37]
Egg rolling
Egg rolling is also a traditional Easter egg game played with eggs at Easter. In the United Kingdom, Germany, and other countries children traditionally rolled eggs down hillsides at Easter.[38] This tradition was taken to the New World by European settlers,[38][39] and continues to this day each Easter with an Easter egg roll on the White House lawn. Rutherford B. Hayes started the tradition of the Easter Egg Roll at the White House.[40] The Easter Monday Egg Roll was normally held at the United States Capitol, however, by the mid-1870s, Congress passed a law forbidding the Capitol’s grounds to be used for the activity due to the toll it was taking on the landscape.[40] The law was enforced in 1877, but the rain that year canceled all outdoor activities.[40] In 1878, Hayes was approached by many young easter egg rollers who asked for the event to be held at the White House.[40] He invited any children who wanted to roll eggs to come to the White House in order to do so. The tradition still occurs every year on the South Lawn of the White House. Now, there are many other games and activities that take place such as “Egg Picking” and “Egg Ball.”[40] Different nations have different versions of the Easter Egg roll game.
Egg tapping
Eggs after an egg tapping competition (red wins)
In the North of England, during Eastertide, a traditional game is played where hard boiled pace eggs are distributed and each player hits the other player's egg with their own. This is known as "egg tapping", "egg dumping", or "egg jarping". The winner is the holder of the last intact egg. The annual egg jarping world championship is held every year over Easter in Peterlee, Durham.[41]
It is also practiced in Italy (where it is called scuccetta), Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Lebanon, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia (where it is called turčanje or trkanje), Ukraine, Russia, and other countries. In parts of Austria, Bavaria and German-speaking Switzerland it is called Ostereiertitschen or Eierpecken. In parts of Europe it is also called epper, presumably from the German name Opfer, meaning "offering" and in Greece it is known as tsougrisma. In South Louisiana, this practice is called pocking eggs[42][43] and is slightly different. The Louisiana Creoles hold that the winner eats the eggs of the losers in each round.
In the Greek Orthodox tradition, red eggs are also cracked together when people exchange Easter greetings.
Egg dance
Egg dance is a traditional Easter game in which eggs are laid on the ground or floor and the goal is to dance among them without damaging any eggs[44] which originated in Germany.
Pace egg plays
The Pace Egg plays are traditional village plays, with a rebirth theme. The drama takes the form of a combat between the hero and villain, in which the hero is killed and brought back to life. The plays take place in England during Easter.
In some countries like Sweden, Norway, Poland and Germany eggs are used as a table decoration hanging on a tree-branch
Variants
Chocolate
Chocolate eggs first appeared at the court of Louis XIV in Versailles and in 1725 the widow Giambone in Turin started producing chocolate eggs by filling empty chicken egg shells with molten chocolate.[45] In 1873 J.S. Fry & Sons of England introduced the first chocolate Easter egg in Britain. Manufacturing their first Easter egg in 1875, Cadbury created the modern chocolate Easter egg after developing a pure cocoa butter that could be moulded into smooth shapes.[46]
In Western cultures, the giving of chocolate eggs is now commonplace, with 80 million Easter eggs sold in the UK alone. Formerly, the containers Easter eggs were sold in contained large amounts of plastic, although in the United Kingdom this has gradually been replaced with recyclable paper and cardboard.[47]
Chocolate Easter egg bunny
Chocolate Easter egg bunny
Easter egg with candy.
Easter egg with candy.
Gladys as a Chocolate Easter Bunny with Easter eggs
Gladys as a Chocolate Easter Bunny with Easter eggs
Marzipan eggs
In the Indian state of Goa, the Goan Catholic version of marzipan is used to make easter eggs. In the Philippines, mazapán de pili (Spanish for "pili marzipan") is made from pili nuts.
Marzipan easter eggs
Marzipan easter eggs
Artificial eggs
The jewelled Easter eggs made by the Fabergé firm for the two last Russian Tsars are regarded as masterpieces of decorative arts. Most of these creations themselves contained hidden surprises such as clock-work birds, or miniature ships.
In Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and other Central European countries' folk traditions, Easter eggs are carved from wood and hand-painted, and making artificial eggs out of porcelain for ladies is common.[48]: 45
Easter eggs are frequently depicted in sculpture, including a 8-metre (27 ft) sculpture of a pysanka standing in Vegreville, Alberta.
Fabergé egg
Fabergé egg
Giant easter egg, Bariloche, Argentina
Giant easter egg, Bariloche, Argentina
Giant pysanka from Vegreville, Alberta, Canada
Giant pysanka from Vegreville, Alberta, Canada
Giant easter egg or pisanica in Zagreb, Croatia
Giant easter egg or pisanica in Zagreb, Croatia
Easter egg sculpture in Gogolin, Poland
Easter egg sculpture in Gogolin, Poland
Giant easter egg in Suceava, Romania
Giant easter egg in Suceava, Romania
Legends
Maria Magdalene, 1899 by Viktor M. Vasnetsov, depicted as one of the Myrrhbearers.
Christian traditions
While the origin of Easter eggs can be explained in the symbolic terms described above, among followers of Eastern Christianity the legend says that Mary Magdalene was bringing cooked eggs to share with the other women at the tomb of Jesus, and the eggs in her basket miraculously turned bright red when she saw the risen Christ.[49]
A different, but not necessarily conflicting legend concerns Mary Magdalene's efforts to spread the Gospel. According to this tradition, after the Ascension of Jesus, Mary went to the Emperor of Rome and greeted him with "Christ has risen," whereupon he pointed to an egg on his table and stated, "Christ has no more risen than that egg is red." After making this statement it is said the egg immediately turned blood red.[50][51]
Red Easter eggs, known as kokkina avga (κόκκινα αυγά) in Greece and krashanki in Ukraine, are an Easter tradition and a distinct type of Easter egg prepared by various Orthodox Christian peoples.[52][53][54][55][56] The red eggs are part of Easter custom in many areas and often accompany other traditional Easter foods. Passover haminados are prepared with similar methods. Dark red eggs are a tradition in Greece and represent the blood of Christ shed on the cross.[57] The practice dates to the early Christian church in Mesopotamia.[8][9] In Greece, superstitions of the past included the custom of placing the first-dyed red egg at the home's iconostasis (place where icons are displayed) to ward off evil. The heads and backs of small lambs were also marked with the red dye to protect them.
Parallels in other faiths
Eggs at the Iranian Nowruz
The egg is widely used as a symbol of the start of new life, just as new life emerges from an egg when the chick hatches out.[2]
Painted eggs are used at the Iranian spring holidays, the Nowruz that marks the first day of spring or Equinox, and the beginning of the year in the Persian calendar. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical Northward equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed. The painted eggs symbolize fertility and are displayed on the Nowruz table, called Haft-Seen together with various other symbolic objects. There are sometimes one egg for each member of the family. The ancient Zoroastrians painted eggs for Nowruz, their New Year celebration, which falls on the Spring equinox. The tradition continues among Persians of Islamic, Zoroastrian, and other faiths today.[58] The Nowruz tradition has existed for at least 2,500 years. The sculptures on the walls of Persepolis show people carrying eggs for Nowruz to the king.[citation needed]
The Neopagan holiday of Ostara occurs at roughly the same time as Easter. While it is often claimed that the use of painted eggs is an ancient, pre-Christian component of the celebration of Ostara, there are no historical accounts that ancient celebrations included this practice, apart from the Old High German lullaby which is believed by most to be a modern fabrication. Rather, the use of painted eggs has been adopted under the assumption that it might be a pre-Christian survival. In fact, modern scholarship has been unable to trace any association between eggs and a supposed goddess named Ostara before the 19th century, when early folklorists began to speculate about the possibility.[59]
There are good grounds for the association between hares (later termed Easter bunnies) and bird eggs, through folklore confusion between hares' forms (where they raise their young) and plovers' nests.[60]
In Judaism, a hard-boiled egg is an element of the Passover Seder, representing festival sacrifice. The children's game of hunting for the afikomen (a half-piece of matzo) has similarities to the Easter egg hunt tradition, by which the child who finds the hidden matzah will be awarded a prize. In other homes, the children hide the afikoman and a parent must look for it; when the parents give up, the children demand a prize for revealing its location. " (wikipedia.org)
"Easter traditions
Since its origins, Easter has been a time of celebration and feasting and many traditional Easter games and customs developed, such as egg rolling, egg tapping, pace egging, cascarones or confetti eggs and egg decorating. Today Easter is commercially important, seeing wide sales of greeting cards and confectionery such as chocolate Easter eggs as well as other Easter food such as turkey. Even many non-Christians celebrate these features of the holiday while ignoring the religious aspects.
Games
There are a large number of traditional Easter games and customs in the Christian world. Many of these games incorporate Easter eggs. Although adopted into the Christian tradition of Easter, these games are probably based in ancient fertility cults[1] (this is a classic example of syncretism). Of these the most well known, widespread and popular until the modern times are the egg rolling, egg hunt, egg tapping, and egg dance. Their rules may vary in different cultures and localities. At the same time, there exist less known peculiar customs. Nowadays child entertainers and kindergartens invent various new Easter games, often adapting well-known games to Easter topics, such as word puzzles involving Easter-related words.
Egg games
The rules of egg rolling may vary significantly, with the basic idea being an egg race. The eggs are either rolled down a steep hill or pushed across a lawn with sticks.
Egg hunt is a kind of treasure hunt game: children have to collect as many hidden eggs as possible.
Egg tapping is a contest for the hardest egg: the contestants tap each other's eggs with egg tips and optionally with other parts: "butts" or sides.
Egg dance requires dancing among eggs while keeping them undamaged. In some traditions the egg dancer may be blindfolded.
Africa
Ethiopia and Eritrea
Main article: Fasika
Easter, known as Fasika (Ge'ez: ፋሲካ, sometimes transcribed as Fasica; from Greek Pascha),[2] also called Tensae (Ge'ez: ትንሣኤ, "to rise")[3] is celebrated among Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians.
In Ethiopia, the most prominent and longstanding religion has been the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (then including the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church) since the times of Frumentius. Ethiopian (Ethio-Eritrean, Eastern) Easter, or Fasika, however, takes place in all the Christian Churches throughout the country, whether it be Orthodox, Catholic, or Protestant, and follows the eastern method of calculating Easter (see Computus for details), thus tending to fall after Easter in the Western calendar (some years both fall on the same date). Fasika is a much more important festival than Christmas, since the Death and Resurrection of Jesus is more significant in Orthodox and Ethiopian Evangelical theology than his birth. Jesus' crucifixion which led to his death on a Friday, according to Orthodox thought was for the purpose of fulfilling the word of God, and led to the conquest of death and Jesus' resurrection from the tomb after three days, the third day being the Sunday when Ethiopian Easter is celebrated.
Fasika is a climactic celebration. Fasting becomes more intense over the 55-day period of Lent for Orthodox Christians, Catholics and optionally for some Protestant denominations, when no meat or animal products of any kind, including milk and butter, are eaten.[4][5][6] Good Friday starts off by church going, and is a day of preparation for the breaking of this long fasting period.
The Orthodox Christians prostrate themselves in church, bowing down and rising up until they get tired. The main religious service takes place with the Paschal Vigil on Saturday night. It is a somber, sacred occasion with music and dancing until the early hours of the morning. At 3:00 a.m. everyone returns home to break their fast, and a chicken is slaughtered at midnight for the symbolic occasion. In the morning, after a rest, a sheep is slaughtered to start the feasting on Easter Sunday. While Catholics and Protestant denominations have special Easter Services/Masses bringing in people from various smaller community churches together to participate in an Easter sermon and celebration.
In Ethiopian-Eritrean Orthodox Christianity or the Tewahedo faith, it is believed the near-sacrifice of Abraham's loved son Isaac (Genesis 22), which was a test of faith from God to Abraham, was interrupted by a voice of an angel from the heavens, and the sending of a Lamb for the sacrifice instead. This Old Testament story is said to be a prophetic foreshadowing of God sending his only beloved son for the world as a sacrifice and the fulfilling of Abraham's promise.
Easter in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and its diaspora communities, is a day when people celebrate; there is a release of enjoyment after the long build-up of suffering which has taken place, to represent Christ's fasting for forty days and forty nights. People often have food and for most Orthodox Christians locally brewed alcohol from fresh honey (tej, tella and katikalla), while to a certain extent Ethiopian-Eritrean Protestantism generally discourages heavy alcohol.
Ethiopians and Eritreans in the West especially those of the Catholic and Protestant denominations celebrate Easter on both the Eastern and Western days. While most Ethiopian-Eritrean Orthodox Christians in the West refrain from doing so because celebrating the Western Easter celebration would interfere with the Orthodox Eastern Fasting Season. In most cases the Catholic Western Fasting Season ends earlier than the Orthodox Eastern Fasting Season as can be seen in the difference between the when the Eastern and Western Churches celebrate Easter (Fasika).
Nigeria
Since the arrival of Christianity in Nigeria with the missionaries that came to the country from the early 1800s, Easter has been observed among the Christian population.[7]
Asia
Malaysia
Despite Malaysia being a Muslim majority country, Easter is celebrated in the states of Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia as there is a significant Christian indigenous population in both states.[8]
The Americas
Marshmallow bunnies and candy eggs in an Easter basket. In many cultures rabbits, which represent fertility, are a symbol of Easter.
Bermuda
In the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda, historically famous for growing and exporting the Easter lily, the most notable feature of the Easter celebration is the flying of kites to symbolize Christ's ascent.[9] Traditional Bermuda kites are constructed by Bermudians of all ages as Easter approaches, and are normally only flown at Easter. In addition to hot cross buns and Easter eggs, fish cakes are traditionally eaten in Bermuda at this time.
Jamaica
In Jamaica, eating bun and cheese is a highly anticipated custom by Jamaican nationals all over the world. The Jamaica Easter Buns are spiced and have raisins, and baked in a loaf tin. The buns are sliced and eaten with a slice of cheese. It is a common practice for employers to make gifts of bun and cheese or a single loaf of bun to staff members. According to the Jamaica Gleaner, "The basic Easter bun recipe requires wheat flour, brown sugar, molasses, baking powder or yeast and dried fruits."[10] Easter egg traditions and the Easter Bunny activities are not widespread in Jamaica. Also, Jamaican traditions include sometimes include throwing garlic onto the floor as a sign of good luck during Easter dinner.
United States
In Louisiana, USA, egg tapping is known as egg-knocking. Marksville, Louisiana claims to host the oldest egg-knocking competition in the US, dating back to the 1950s. Competitors pair up on the steps of the courthouse on Easter Sunday and knock the tips of two eggs together. If a participant's egg shell cracks they have to forfeit it, a process that continues until just one egg remains.[11] Venetia Newall describes egg eating competitions in Western Germany and among German emigrants to Pennsylvania, United States.[12]
Europe
Central and Eastern Europe
Ritual whipping of girls in Moravia (1910)
Slovak korbáč (a special handmade whip)
Traditional Slovenian Easter breakfast with eggs, ham with horseradish, and potica
Many central and eastern European ethnic groups, including the Albanians, Armenians, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Croats, Czechs, Estonians, Georgians, Germans, Hungarians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Macedonians, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, and Ukrainians, decorate eggs for Easter.
In Bulgaria, the Easter eggs are decorated on Thursday or Saturday before Easter. Widespread tradition is to fight with eggs by pair, and the one whose egg is the last surviving is called borak (Bulgarian: борак or борец, fighter). The tradition is to display the decorated eggs on the Easter table together with the Easter dinner consisting of roasted lamb, a salad called Easter salad (lettuce with cucumbers), and a sweet bread called kozunak.
In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and some parts of Hungary, a tradition of spanking or whipping is carried out on Easter Monday. In the morning, men spank women with a special handmade whip called "Easter switches"[13] called a pomlázka (in Czech) or korbáč (in Slovak); in eastern regions of former Czechoslovakia Moravia and Slovakia they also pour cold water on them. The pomlázka/korbáč consists of eight, 12 or even 24 withies (willow rods), is usually from half a metre to two meters long and decorated with coloured ribbons at the end. In some regions it might be replaced by a stick of a juniper tree. The spanking may be painful, but it's not intended to cause suffering. A legend says that women should be spanked with a whip in order to keep their health, beauty, and fertility during the whole next year.[14]
An additional purpose can be for men to exhibit their attraction to women; unvisited women can even feel offended. Traditionally, the spanked woman gives a coloured egg (kraslice) they've prepared by themselves as invitations to eat and drink and as a sign of her thanks to the man. If the visitor is a small boy, he is usually provided with sweets and a small amount of money.
In some regions, the women can get revenge in the afternoon or the following day when they can pour a bucket of cold water on any man. The habit slightly varies across Slovakia and the Czech Republic. A similar tradition existed in Poland (where it is called Dyngus Day), but it is now little more than an all-day water fight.
Osterbrunnen in Heiligenstadt, Germany
In Germany, decorated eggs are hung on branches of bushes and trees to make them Easter egg trees. Eggs are also used to dress wells for Easter, the Osterbrunnen, most prominently in the Fränkische Schweiz (Franconian Switzerland).[15]
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia, a basket of food is prepared, covered with a handmade cloth, and brought to the church to be blessed. A typical Easter basket includes bread, colored eggs, ham, horseradish, and a type of nut cake called "potica".[16]
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo, jumping over flames (Serbian Cyrillic: Крљавештице, romanized: Krljaveštice) is a customary requirement to jump over fire.[17]
Cyprus
As well as the common painted easter egg hunt, in Cyprus it is customary for people to light great fires[18] (Greek: λαμπρατζια) in schools or church yards. The fires are made up of scrap wood, gathered usually by enthusiastic young boys which scour their neighbourhoods for them, in order to make their fire as great as it can be (and bigger than the neighbouring one). More than often this competition leads to fights happening over scraps of wood and the police or fire department being called to put out the fires that have gone out of control. It is customary for a small doll representing Judas Iscariot to be burnt. The same thing happens on Crete, but it is non-competitive, and the fire is called "founara" which means "big fire" in Cretan Greek. The founara burns coupled with the detonation of small dynamites called "plakatzikia" in plural, and with gunshots in the air.
Typical German Easter bread
Germany
In northern Germany, Easter Fires (in German: Osterfeuer, listen (help·info)) are lit around sunset on Holy Saturday. Each of the federal states have their own regulations for allowing and/or the way of staging Easter Fires: While in the city and state of Hamburg, private persons are allowed to have an Easter Fire of any size on their own premises, in Schleswig-Holstein, for example, only the widespread voluntary fire brigades are allowed to organize and stage them on open fields. Over the past years, Easter Fires themselves have become larger and developed to smaller versions of Volksfests with some snack stands selling Bratwurst, steak in bread rolls, beer, wine, and soft drinks as well as maybe one or two rides for the children. Usually, Easter Fires are kept burning over hours until dawn (roughly around 6 o'clock) and cause therefore a special atmosphere during the whole Easter Night with their bright lights in the dark and the omnipresent smell of smoke.
During the weeks before Easter, special Easter bread is sold (in German: Osterbrot). This is made with yeast dough, raisins, and almond splinters. Usually, it is cut in slices and spread with butter. People enjoy it either for breakfast or for tea time (in German: Kaffee und Kuchen, literally ″coffee and cake″).
In many parts of Germany a popular Easter pastime is egg throwing. In this "game" there are no winners or losers, nor any apparent aim. Participants throw a painted and decorated hard boiled egg as far as they can across the fields. This is repeated until eventually the egg bursts apart, an event that takes a sometimes surprising number of throws. In other versions it is a competitive event when pairs throw a raw egg to each other while moving further and further apart.
United Kingdom
In Scotland, the north of England, and Northern Ireland, the traditions of rolling decorated eggs down steep hills and pace egging are still adhered to.
Strutt and Hone in their 1867 book The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England describe an Easter tradition from the Isles of Scilly called goose dancing. For goose dancing the maidens dress up as young men and vice versa. In this disguise they visit neighbours for dancing and making joke stories.[19]
Hungary
In Hungary, Transylvania, Southern Slovakia, Kárpátalja, Northern Serbia - Vojvodina, and other territories with Hungarian-speaking communities, the day following Easter is called Locsoló Hétfő, "Watering Monday". Men usually visit families with girls and women. Water, perfume or perfumed water is sprinkled on the women and girls of the house by the visiting men, who are given in exchange an Easter egg. Traditionally Easter ham, colored boiled eggs and horseradish sauce is consumed on Sunday morning. In the Eastern part of the country, an Easter specialty known as sárgatúró (literally "yellow curd cheese") is made for the occasion.[20]
Ireland
Easter was traditionally the most important date in the Christian calendar in Ireland, with a large feast marking the end of lent on Easter Sunday. Among the food commonly eaten were lamb, veal, and chicken, with a meal of corned beef, cabbage, and floury potatoes was a popular meal. It was traditional for farmers to share the meat from a slaughtered bullock or lamb with neighbours and or the less fortunate. Another tradition was that if a beggar called to a house, they would be given roasted potatoes. At this time of year, eggs were plentiful, and would be eaten at each meal.[21]
Eggs were dyed for good luck, using a variety of methods such as boiling them with certain lichens and plants. The coloured eggshells would be kept to decorate the May bush. A tradition among children was to collect their own food for a feast, including eggs and potatoes, which they would cook outdoors using a fire. They would also eat buttered bread, sweet cakes, with milk of homemade cordial. The place the children's feast was held would be known as a clúdóg. As a game on Easter Sunday, it was a custom to roll hard boiled eggs down a hill. There are records of Easter Sunday being referred to as Easter Egg Day as far back as 1827, recounting the consumption of eggs.[22]
Easter is a day of remembrance for the men and women who died in the Easter Rising which began on Easter Monday 1916. Until 1966, there was a parade of veterans, past the headquarters of the Irish Volunteers at the General Post Office (GPO) on O'Connell Street, Dublin, and a reading of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. It is usually celebrated on Easter Monday.
Italy
Italian traditional Easter cake called the Colomba Pasquale
In Florence, Italy, the unique custom of the Scoppio del carro is observed in which a holy fire lit from stone shards from the Holy Sepulchre are used to light a fire during the singing of the Gloria of the Easter Sunday Mass, which is used to ignite a rocket in the form of a dove, representing peace and the Holy Spirit, which following a wire in turn lights a cart containing pyrotechnics in the small square before the cathedral.[citation needed]
The Netherlands, Belgium and France
Church bells are silent as a sign of mourning for one or more days before Easter in The Netherlands, Belgium and France. This has led to an Easter tradition that says the bells fly out of their steeples to go to Rome (explaining their silence), and return on Easter morning bringing both colored eggs and hollow chocolate shaped like eggs or rabbits.
In both The Netherlands and Dutch-speaking Belgium many of more modern traditions exist alongside the Easter Bell story. The bells ("de Paasklokken") leave for Rome on Holy Saturday, called "Stille Zaterdag" (literally "Silent Saturday") in Dutch. In the northern and eastern parts of the Netherlands (Twente and Achterhoek), Easter Fires (in Dutch: Paasvuur) are lit on Easter Day at sunset.
In French-speaking Belgium and France the same story of Easter Bells (« les cloches de Pâques ») bringing eggs from Rome is told, but church bells are silent beginning Maundy Thursday, the first day of the Paschal Triduum.
Nordic countries
In Norway, in addition to staying at mountain cabins, cross-country skiing and painting eggs, a contemporary tradition is to read or watch murder mysteries at Easter. All the major television channels run crime and detective stories (such as Agatha Christie's Poirot), magazines print stories where the readers can try to figure out "Whodunnit", and new detective novels are scheduled for publishing before Easter. Even the milk cartons are altered for a couple of weeks. Each Easter a new short mystery story is printed on their sides. Stores and businesses close for five straight days at Easter, with the exception of grocery stores, which re-open for a single day on the Saturday before Easter Sunday.
A girl dressed up as an Easter witch
In Sweden and Finland, traditions include egg painting and small children dressed as Easter witches (påskkärring[23] or in Finland påskhäxa, typically dressed as old folks) collecting candy door-to-door, in exchange for decorated hand-made greetings such as cards[24] or pussy willows, called virvonta in Finland, which is a result of the mixing of an old Orthodox tradition (blessing houses with willow branches) and the Swedish Easter witch tradition.[25] Brightly coloured feathers and little decorations are also attached to birch branches in a vase. In Finland, it is common to plant ryegrass in a pot as a symbol of spring and new life. After the grass has grown, many people put chick decorations on it. Children busy themselves painting eggs and making paper bunnies.
Denmark has the gækkebrev tradition of sending relatives and friends artful paper cuttings, often with a snowdrop, and a rhyme with the letters of the sender's name replaced by dots. If the recipient guesses who sent it, the sender owes them a chocolate egg; and vice versa if they can't.[26] The decorated letter custom was originally a means of proposal or courtship, but is now considered mostly for children.
Gækkebrev, a Danish Easter letter
For lunch or dinner on Holy Saturday, families in Sweden and Denmark traditionally feast on a smörgåsbord of herring, salmon, potatoes, eggs, and other kinds of food. In Finland, it is common to eat roasted lamb with potatoes and other vegetables. In Finland, the Lutheran majority enjoys mämmi as another traditional Easter treat, while the Orthodox minority's traditions include eating pasha (also spelled paskha) instead.
In the western parts of Sweden and in Finnish Ostrobothnia, bonfires have at least since the 18th century been lit during Holy Saturday. This tradition is claimed to have its origin in Holland. During the last decades though, the bonfires have in many places been moved to Walpurgis Night, as this is the traditional date for bonfires in many other parts of the country.
Poland
Main article: Easter in Poland
In Poland, white sausage and mazurek are typical Easter breakfast dishes.
The butter lamb (Baranek wielkanocny) is a traditional addition to the Easter meal for many Polish Catholics. Butter is shaped into a lamb either by hand or in a lamb-shaped mold.
Ukraine
Preparations for Easter celebration in Ukraine begin weeks before the feast day, with Great Lent being part of it. The Ukrainian Easter eggs include pysanky,[27] krashanky (edible, one-colour dyed eggs), driapanky (a design is scratched on the eggshell) etc. During the Easter Vigil a priest also blesses the parishioners' Easter baskets, which include Easter eggs, paska,[28] butter, cheese, kovbasa, salt and a few other products. With this food, on their return home, people break their fast. The ritual is called 'rozhovyny'. People visit their relatives and neighbours exchanging Easter greetings. Celebration of Easter in Ukraine is filled with many other customs and rituals, most of which are centuries-old.[29]
Oceania
Hot cross buns
New Zealand
In New Zealand, the Auckland Easter Show is an annual tradition, also" (wikipedia.org)
"Bleyer Industries Inc. has major changes in the air, as it is selling two manufacturing plants and seeking a joint venture or buyer for a third site in Peoria, Ill.
The Valley Stream, N.Y., firm operates an injection molding site in Peoria; an extrusion site in Mount Union, Pa.; and printing and converting operations in Hauppauge, N.Y.
The Peoria plant injection molds Easter eggs. Local news reports have said that plant will close.
``We're not closing the [Peoria] plant,'' President Nicholas Poulis said in a March 26 telephone interview. ``We're considering an outright sale or a joint venture. It does need another product line in there. Due to loss of sales to imported plastic eggs, that's why we're looking for another buyer.''
Bleyer Industries has been in business since 1958, making seasonal products and decorations for the retail and industrial markets. At the Peoria site, acquired in 1989, 35 machines produce plastic eggs and related holiday products. Officials believe it is the largest domestic operation producing Easter eggs. That operation supports nearly 50 full-time core employees, but Bleyer was forced to lay off 40 employees the week of March 22, officials said.
``We spent billions of dollars in automating the facility,'' Poulis said. ``It's very tough competition when you have those imported items coming in. ... We'd like to keep it in Peoria and preserve all the jobs. That's our objective.''
Its Mount Union operation is focused on plastic Easter grass and gift wrap. Officials expect to announce a buyer in about one month.
``That's a growth type of business,'' Poulis said." (plasticnews.com)
"Thank One of America’s Most Prolific Inventors for the Hinged Plastic Easter Egg
Donald Weder holds some 1,400 U.S. patents for inventions, including the ubiquitous egg and a process for making plastic Easter grass
David Kindy
April 17, 2019
hinged plastic easter egg.jpg
Featuring a small plastic hinge binding both pieces together, this clever container became the perfect way to conceal treats from prying eyes. Joe_Potato/iStock
This Sunday, as millions of children tear into Easter baskets and begin strewing candy wrappers, toys and other holiday jetsam around houses nationwide, parents can thank father-and-son inventors from Illinois for cutting in half the number of plastic egg pieces they have to pick up.
Erwin and Donald Weder had a stroke of genius when they came up with the idea for the hinged plastic Easter egg. Patented in 1978, the simple yet effective concept changed forever the post-holiday cleanup process. Now, instead of trying to match discarded egg halves with the correct pieces, harrowed parents have one whole egg to deal with.
Featuring a small plastic hinge binding both pieces together, this clever container became the perfect way to conceal treats from prying eyes. The abstract for U.S. Patent 4,124,135 says it all: “the Easter egg may be opened or closed to enable candy, toys, figurines or any other items desired to be placed therein so that they will appear to be inaccessible but yet the egg can be opened to provide access to the items.”
“My father was the primary inventor,” says Donald, now 71. “I facilitated its use and added a few improvements to the idea.”
Thank One of America's Most Prolific Inventors for the Hinged Plastic Easter Egg
Erwin and Donald Weder's "Hinged Plastic Easter Egg," patented November 7, 1978 U.S. Patent 4,124,135
The younger Weder is exceptionally modest as he deflects praise to family members and associates for their contributions to projects. However, that’s not the only thing exceptional about him: he is one of America's most prolific inventors. Weder is part of an elite group of inventors internationally who have passed up Thomas Edison in the total number of U.S. patents granted to them. With 1,413 in total, Weder has easily eclipsed Edison’s 1,093 U.S. patents.
Donald Weder is the president of Highland Supply Corporation of Highland, Illinois. The company is a major player in the floriculture industry, which is the inspiration for many of his inventions and patents. He, his father and associates have developed designs and production methods for countless products related to the florist trade, including the first Florist Foil and its successor, Plastifoil, flower pots covers, decorative wrappers, flexible packaging and many, many more products.
“Our company invented the decorative coverings that you see around many flower pots today,” Weder says. “We created a way of laminating Florist Foil with different colors, designs and textures to make the pot more attractive while protecting it too.”
Weder also patented a number of ideas that help the environment, including water-based inks used in printing. This product has been important in reducing pollutants in nature, including the volatile organic compounds found in oil-based paints.
Inventing things seems to be second nature to Weder. He is working with a researcher on a project trying to detail how the creative process is hatched. However, even he finds it difficult to identify all of the elements required for inspiration. At least for Weder, it appears that necessity is indeed the mother of invention.
“Most of our inventions relate to things we could produce and sell,” he says. “Some of our more successful products include the flower pot covers, wrappers for bouquets and a process for making Easter grass.”
Yes, he has also had a hand in making the grass-like plastic material in many Easter baskets that cushions those single-piece plastic eggs. It is also used as a decorative element in numerous floral presentations.
“We found a way of creating a much-better quality product that is also inflammable,” he says. “It’s still doing quite well.”
The innovative spirit appears to be hereditary. Weder’s father was also an accomplished inventor, developing the beauty corsage container in 1937. He came up with the idea and created the equipment to produce it using the parts of a wringer washing machine and a treadle sewing machine.
“My father also invented the folding Christmas tree and the aerosol can,” the son claims, though other inventors ultimately received patents and credit for these items.
Though the elder Weder died in 1987, the company he founded remains a family-owned business. Donald and his sister Wanda continue to be active in running Highland Supply. Today, two of Donald’s sons, Erwin and Andrew, have a hand in operations.
And the inventions keep on coming. Currently on the drawing board are a fire suppression system and a concept for cleaning steel and copper wire—a staple of the floriculture industry. Recently, Weder applied for a patent for an ecologically sensitive incubator that uses earthworms to consume paper in seven days or less. This process helps florists create nutrient-dense material for use with potted plants.
Now if he could invent an Easter egg that puts itself away, Weder might achieve a rank even higher in prominence than the long-eared hopping hero who brought them—at least with parents who have to clean up that post-holiday mess." (smithsonianmag.com)
"The holiday of Easter is associated with various Easter customs and foodways (food traditions that vary regionally). Preparing, coloring, and decorating Easter eggs is one such popular tradition. Lamb is eaten in many countries, mirroring the Jewish Passover meal.[1]
Some regional Easter dishes
See also: Easter customs
In Greece, the traditional Easter meal is mageiritsa, a hearty stew of chopped lamb liver and wild greens seasoned with egg-and-lemon sauce. Traditionally, Easter eggs, hard-boiled eggs dyed bright red to symbolize the spilt Blood of Christ and the promise of eternal life, are cracked together to celebrate the opening of the Tomb of Christ.
In Neapolitan cuisine, the main Easter dishes are the casatiello or tortano, a savoury pie made with bread dough stuffed with various types of salami and cheese, also used the day after Easter for outdoor lunches. Typical of Easter lunches and dinners is the fellata, a banquet of salami and capocollo and salty ricotta. Typical dishes are also lamb or goat baked with potatoes and peas. Easter cake is the pastiera.
In Russia, red eggs, kulich and paskha are Easter traditions.
In Serbia, paretak are traditional Easter pastries.
In Ukraine, there are several traditional Easter foods including paska (bread) and cheesecake desserts.[2]
List of Easter foods
Swiecone
Paretak
Other Easter foods and food traditions include:
Akvavit
Awara broth, in French Guiana
Babka (cake)
Butter lamb
Cadbury egg
Carrot cake
Chakapuli
Colomba di Pasqua
Cozonac
Easter biscuit
Easter bread
Easter breakfast (see Polish cuisine#Easter breakfast)
Easter bunny (often of the chocolate variety)
Easter eggs
Red Easter eggs
Hot cross bun
Fanesca, in Ecuador
Feseekh, in Egypt
Flaouna
Easter Ham
Koulourakia
Kulich
Leib
Mämmi
Ma'amoul
Mazurek (cake)
Pão-de-Ló and "Folar" in Portugal
Paretak pastries
Paska (bread)
Paskha
Pastiera
Pesaha Appam
Pinca
Peeps
Pogaca (bread)
Salted herring
Sárgatúró in Hungary
Simnel cake
Šoldra
Święconka
Tsoureki, sometimes lined with red Easter eggs
Habichuelas con dulce, in Dominican Republic" (wikipedia.org)
"Egg decorating is the art or craft of decorating eggs. It has been a popular art form throughout history because of the attractive, smooth, oval shape of the egg, and the ancient associations with eggs as a religious and cultural symbol. Egg decorating has been associated with Easter in recent times, but was practiced independently by many ancient cultures.
History
Eggs are an important symbol in folklore and mythology, often representing life and rebirth, healing and protection, and sometimes featuring in creation myths.[1] This means that traditional egg decorating existed throughout the world.
Africa
The oldest eggshells, decorated with engraved hatched patterns, are dated for 60,000 years ago and were found at Diepkloof Rock Shelter in South Africa.[2]
In Egypt, it is a tradition to decorate boiled eggs during Sham el-Nessim, a spring-ushering national holiday celebrated by Egyptians regardless of religion, which falls every year on the Monday following the Eastern Christian Easter.
Australia
In Australia, emu eggs are carved and the art created by them is known as kalti paarti carving.[3] The art (which dates to the nineteenth century) is practised by people of different cultures, but it is associated most strongly with Aboriginal art.
Eurasia
A Carthaginian decorated egg from the Iron Age
A Punic ostrich egg was found in Villaricos, Spain.
Orthodox Christians in Mesopotamia used red dyed eggs to symbolise the blood of Christ, which is a possible origin of the Easter egg. Red eggs feature in Greek Easter celebrations, where people play games which involve tapping the red eggs against each other.[1]
Persian culture has a tradition of egg decorating, which takes place during the spring equinox. This time marks Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Family members decorate eggs together and place them in a bowl. It is said that it is from this cultural tradition that the Christian practice on Easter ultimately originates, having been transmitted via the Slavs.
Long ago Slavic and Iranic peoples formed a close continuum sharing many traditions and innovations in religion and language and in the first millennium many formerly Iranic peoples would eventually become Turkic or Slavic in identity. The tradition of Nowruz, which has its roots in at least ancient Zoroastrian tradition, is practised by Persian and Turkic peoples of various faiths, albeit the tradition of egg decorating may be even older than the holiday as known modernly.
Eastern European and North Asian cultures, particularly Slavic ones, have a strong tradition of decorating eggs which date back at least to times when Slavic paganism was the predominant religion. Chicken, duck and goose eggs are decorated variously with batik dyeing, applique, scratch-work, wax encaustic and carving. Egg decorating is particularly popular in Ukraine, where as in many Slavic countries, the eggs are called Pysanky.
The renowned Russian court artist and jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé made exquisitely decorated precious metal and gemstone eggs for the Romanovs. These Fabergé eggs resembled standard decorated eggs, but they were made from gold and precious stones. In addition to the Slavs, many Turkic peoples also maintain closely-related traditions of egg dying, associated with the coming of Spring and the Persian New Year Nowruz.
In many parts of Europe, egg decorating took place before the widespread adoption of Christianity. It is unclear to what extent paganism and Christianity influenced the practice. The earliest example of egg decoration in Europe was a decorated egg found buried with a Slavic girl in modern-day Worms, Germany, dating to the 5th century, when eggs were not yet associated with Easter. This was near the beginning of the Slavic migrations into Europe. Slavic paganism had ties to other early Eastern Indo-European religions such as old Persian religions, albeit often with peculiar influence from neighbouring Finnic peoples as well.[1]
In Northern England, the tradition of Pace Egging (derived from Latin pascha meaning 'Easter') involved boiling eggs in onion skins to dye their shells a golden colour,[4] or alternatively covered in leaves or flowers inside an onion skin to leave a patterned imprint.[1] The tradition is practiced on Easter but is thought to be pre-Christian in origin.[5] Scandinavian traditions also involved boiling eggs with flowers inside onion skins to colour them.[1]
Another type of egg decoration is the Hungarian practice of egg shoeing, which requires goose eggs and miniature horse-shoes, made of iron or lead. The current world record of egg shoeing is 1119 shoes on a single ostrich egg.[6]
Techniques and modern practices
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Any bird egg can be facilitated in this process, but most often the larger and stronger the eggshell is, the more favoured it will be by decorators.
Goose, duck and hens' eggs are usually "blown" – a hole is made in each end and the contents are blown out. The egg is then either carved, dyed, painted, appliqued or otherwise decorated (using a number of different techniques). Egg decoration is particularly popular in Eastern European countries.
Some eggs, like emu or ostrich eggs, are so large and strong that the shells may be carved without breaking. Decorations on emu eggs take advantage of the contrast in colours between the dark green mottled outside of the shell and the shell-underlay.
Many modern egg artists decorate their "art eggs" by etching or carving, while others paint or cover their eggs with different materials, from paper and fabric to polymer clay and are often painted in bright, spring colours. Using eggs as a canvas has become so popular that special terms have developed with the art form.[7] Egg artists also have their own guild, the International Egg Art Guild, which promotes the craft of egg artistry.
In the United States there are shows in many states where artists show their eggs and vendors of "egging" supplies can be found. Each year, the White House chooses a decorated egg from each state to display at easter. " (wikipedia.org)
"An egg hunt is an Eastertide game during which decorated eggs or Easter eggs are hidden for children to find. Real hard-boiled eggs, which are typically dyed or painted, artificial eggs made of plastic filled with chocolate or candies, or foil-wrapped egg-shaped chocolates of various sizes are hidden in various places; as many people give up sweets as their Lenten sacrifice, individuals consume them after having abstained from them during the preceding forty days of Lent.[1]
The game is often played outdoors, but can also be played indoors. The children typically collect the eggs in a basket. When the hunt is over, prizes may be given out for various achievements, such as the largest number of eggs collected, for the largest or smallest egg, for the most eggs of a specific color, consolation prizes or booby prizes.[2] Real eggs may further be used in egg tapping contests. If eggs filled with confetti left from Mardi Gras (cascarones) are used, then an egg fight may follow.[2] Eggs are placed with varying degree of concealment, to accommodate children of varying ages and development levels. In South German folk traditions it was customary to add extra obstacles to the game by placing them into hard-to reach places among nettles or thorns.[3]
History
A woman hides Easter eggs for preschool-aged children to find. She is careful not to make their location and retrieval too difficult.
The egg was a symbol of the rebirth of the earth in pre-Christian celebrations of spring. However, the Easter egg itself was defined by early Christians as an Easter symbol of the resurrection of Jesus: the egg symbol was likened to the tomb from which Christ arose.[4] Lizette Larson-Miller, a professor with the Graduate Theological Union of Berkeley, traces the specific custom of the Easter egg hunt to the Protestant Christian Reformer Martin Luther, stating "We know that Martin Luther had Easter egg hunts where the men hid the eggs for the women and children, and it probably has this connection back to this idea of eggs being the tomb."[5] At least since the 17th century the idea of the Easter Bunny to bring the Easter eggs has been known. The novelty of the introduction of Easter egg hunts into England is evidenced by A. E. Housman's inaugural lecture as Professor of Latin at University College, London in 1892, in which he said, "In Germany at Easter time they hide coloured eggs about the house and garden that the children may amuse themselves in discovering them."[6]
Easter egg hunt in Wuxi, Jiangsu (1934)
Reverend MaryJane Pierce Norton, Associate General Secretary of Leadership Ministries at the General Board of Discipleship, states that "there’s something about going to hunt the eggs just as we might go to hunt for Jesus in the tomb. And when we find them it’s that joy that the women had when they reached the tomb first and found that Jesus was no longer there."[7] Traditionally the game is associated with Easter and Easter eggs, but it has also been popular with spring time birthday parties.[2] Egg hunts are a subject of the Guinness Book of World Records; Homer, Georgia, United States was listed in 1985 with 80,000 eggs to hunt in a town of 950 people.
To enable children to take part in egg hunts despite visual impairment, eggs have been created that emit various clicks, beeps, noises, or music.[8]
Commercial use
Cadbury Easter egg hunt in 2016
A number of companies have made use of the popularity of Easter and more specifically Easter egg hunts to promote the sales of their candy products. Most notable have been chocolatiers including Cadbury with their annual Easter Egg Trail which takes place in over 250 National Trust locations in the UK.[9] In 2015, the British chocolate company Thorntons worked with the geocaching community to hide chocolate eggs across the United Kingdom." (wikipedia.org)
"Mount Union is a borough in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, United States, approximately 44 miles (71 km) southeast of Altoona and 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Huntingdon, on the Juniata River. In the vicinity are found bituminous coal, ganister rock, fire clay, and some timber. A major Easter grass factory is located in the northern quadrant of the borough limits; until May 2007, the facility was owned by Bleyer Industries.[3] The population was 2,447 at the 2010 census.
History
Mount Union was largely influenced by industry. It was at one time the world's largest producer of refractory material (silica brick), with three plants – General Refractories, United States Refractories, and Harbison Walker. The refractory business in Mount Union lasted from 1899 to about 1972, with limited production into the early 1990s. Other industries included two tanneries, a tanning extract plant, coal yards, an explosives and munitions plant (Aetna), and foundry and machine shops.
Mount Union was the northern terminus for the narrow gauge East Broad Top Railroad, connecting to the Main Line of the Middle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad (now Norfolk Southern). The EBT maintained a large dual-gauge yard and coal cleaning plant in Mount Union and supplied coal to the Refractory plants. The EBT ceased operations in 1956 but the track is still in place and owned by the railroad. From 1998 to 2010, the Mount Union Connecting Railroad attempted to reactivate the EBT main track through Mount Union and rehabilitated it, but only a couple cars were serviced and none moved over the EBT trackage.
The Mount Union Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, with 300 significant historic structures, buildings, and homes.[4] The population tally in 1900 was 1,086 which rose to 3,338 in 1910.
Today
The culturally significant Thousand Steps of the Standing Stone Trail are located in the Jacks Narrows, approximately two miles west of the town along U.S. Route 22. The annual Creation Festival is hosted locally (since 1984), drawing thousands of visitors in late June. Mount Union is the site of the PA Lions Beacon Lodge Camp, a summer camp for people with visual impairments and special needs, founded by Carl Shoemaker in 1948.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 1.2 square miles (3.1 km2), of which 1.1 square miles (2.8 km2) is land and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km2) (2.59%) is water....
Demographics
Historical population Census Pop. Note %±
1870 535 —
1880 764 42.8%
1890 810 6.0%
1900 1,086 34.1%
1910 3,338 207.4%
1920 4,744 42.1%
1930 4,892 3.1%
1940 4,763 −2.6%
1950 4,690 −1.5%
1960 4,091 −12.8%
1970 3,662 −10.5%
1980 3,101 −15.3%
1990 2,878 −7.2%
2000 2,504 −13.0%
2010 2,447 −2.3%
2020 2,308 −5.7%
Sources:[5][6][7][2]
As of the census[6] of 2000, there were 2,504 people, 1,166 households, and 684 families residing in the borough. The population density was 2,221.6 inhabitants per square mile (857.8/km2). There were 1,288 housing units at an average density of 1,142.8 per square mile (441.2/km2). The racial makeup of the borough was 86.50% White, 11.02% African American, 0.04% Native American, 0.32% from other races, and 2.12% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.20% of the population.
There were 1,166 households, out of which 29.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.3% were married couples living together, 18.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.3% were non-families. 37.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.15 and the average family size was 2.83.
In the borough the population was spread out, with 25.6% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 24.6% from 25 to 44, 23.2% from 45 to 64, and 18.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 81.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.7 males.
The median income for a household in the borough was $21,048, and the median income for a family was $30,582. Males had a median income of $28,464 versus $21,719 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $13,419. About 25.5% of families and 28.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 50.0% of those under age 18 and 17.9% of those age 65 or over. " (wikipedia.org)
"The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit—sometimes dressed with clothes—bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behavior at the start of the season of Eastertide,[1] similar to the "naughty or nice" list made by Santa Claus. As part of the legend, the creature carries colored eggs in its basket, as well as candy, and sometimes toys, to the homes of children. As such, the Easter Bunny again shows similarities to Santa (or the Christkind) and Christmas by bringing gifts to children on the night before a holiday. The custom was first[2][unreliable source?] mentioned in Georg Franck von Franckenau's De ovis paschalibus[3] ('About Easter eggs') in 1682, referring to a German tradition of an Easter Hare bringing eggs for the children.
Symbols
Rabbits and hares
Inflatable Easter Bunny in front of San Francisco City Hall
The hare was a popular motif in medieval church art. In ancient times, it was widely believed (as by Pliny, Plutarch, Philostratus, and Aelian) that the hare was a hermaphrodite.[4][5][6] The idea that a hare could reproduce without loss of virginity led to an association with the Virgin Mary, with hares sometimes occurring in illuminated manuscripts and Northern European paintings of the Virgin and Christ Child. It may also have been associated with the Holy Trinity, as in the three hares motif.[4][7][unreliable source?][8]
Eggs
Main articles: Easter egg and Egg decorating
Eggs have been used as fertility symbols since antiquity.[9] Eggs became a symbol in Christianity associated with rebirth as early as the 1st century AD, via the iconography of the Phoenix egg, and they became associated with Easter specifically in medieval Europe, when eating them was prohibited during the fast of Lent. A common practice in England at that time was for children to go door-to-door begging for eggs on the Saturday before Lent began. People handed out eggs as special treats for children prior to their fast.[10]
As a special dish, eggs would probably have been decorated as part of the Easter celebrations. Later, German Protestants retained the custom of eating colored eggs for Easter, though they did not continue the tradition of fasting.[11] Eggs boiled with some flowers change their color, bringing the spring into the homes, and some over time added the custom of decorating the eggs.[12] Many Christians of the Eastern Orthodox Church to this day typically dye their Easter eggs red,[13] the color of blood, in recognition of the blood of the sacrificed Christ (and, of the renewal of life in springtime). Some also use the color green, in honor of the new foliage emerging after the long-dead time of winter. The Ukrainian art of decorating eggs for Easter, known as pysanky, dates to ancient, pre-Christian times. Similar variants of this form of artwork are seen amongst other eastern and central European cultures.[14]
The idea of an egg-giving hare went to the U.S. in the 18th century. Protestant German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children about the "Osterhase" (sometimes spelled "Oschter Haws"[15]). Hase means "hare", not rabbit, and in Northwest European folklore the "Easter Bunny" indeed is a hare. According to the legend, only good children received gifts of colored eggs in the nests that they made in their caps and bonnets before Easter.[16]
Gallery
Dreihasenfenster ('Window of Three Hares') in Paderborn Cathedral in Paderborn, Germany
Dreihasenfenster ('Window of Three Hares') in Paderborn Cathedral in Paderborn, Germany
Easter bunnies and Easter eggs as Easter biscuits
Easter bunnies and Easter eggs as Easter biscuits
Marshmallow bunnies and candy eggs in an Easter basket
Marshmallow bunnies and candy eggs in an Easter basket
A real live bunny with decorated Easter eggs
A real live bunny with decorated Easter eggs
Chocolate Easter bunnies
Chocolate Easter bunnies
Chocolate Easter Bunny molds from Alsace Musée du pain d'épices
Chocolate Easter Bunny molds from Alsace Musée du pain d'épices
Alleged association with Ēostre
In a publication from 1874 German philologist Adolf Holtzmann stated "The Easter Hare is unintelligible to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara".[17] The connection between Easter and that goddess had been made by Jacob Grimm in his 1835 Deutsche Mythologie.[18] This proposed association was repeated by other authors including Charles Isaac Elton[19] and Charles J. Billson.[20] In 1961 Christina Hole wrote, "The hare was the sacred beast of Eastre (or Ēostre), a Saxon goddess of Spring and of the dawn."[21][page needed] The belief that Ēostre had a hare companion who became the Easter Bunny was popularized when it was presented as fact in the BBC documentary Shadow of the Hare (1993).[22]
The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore however states "... there is no shred of evidence" that hares were sacred to Ēostre, noting that Bede does not associate her with any animal." (wikipedia.org)
"Rabbits and hares (Leporidae) are common motifs in the visual arts, with variable mythological and artistic meanings in different cultures. The rabbit as well as the hare have been associated with moon deities and may signify rebirth or resurrection.[1] They may also be symbols of fertility or sensuality, and they appear in depictions of hunting and spring scenes in the Labours of the Months.
Judaism
The rabbit as a gift in courtship, exterior detail of a red-figure kylix, (Athens c. 480 BC)
In Judaism, the rabbit is considered an unclean animal, because "though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof."[2][note 1] This led to derogatory statements in the Christian art of the Middle Ages, and to an ambiguous interpretation of the rabbit's symbolism. The "shafan" in Hebrew has symbolic meaning. Although rabbits were a non-kosher animal in the Bible, positive symbolic connotations were sometimes noted, as for lions and eagles. 16th century German scholar Rabbi Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, saw the rabbits as a symbol of the Diaspora. In any case, a three hares motif was a prominent part of many Synagogues.[1][3]
Classical Antiquity
In Classical Antiquity, the hare, because it was prized as a hunting quarry, was seen as the epitome of the hunted creature that could survive only by prolific breeding. Herodotus,[4] Aristotle, Pliny and Claudius Aelianus all described the rabbit as one of the most fertile of animals. It thus became a symbol of vitality, sexual desire and fertility. The hare served as an attribute of Aphrodite and as a gift between lovers. In late antiquity it was used as a symbol of good luck and in connection with ancient burial traditions.
Christian art
Venus, Mars and Cupid by Piero di Cosimo, a Cupid lying on Venus clings to a white rabbit.
In Early Christian art, hares appeared on reliefs, epitaphs, icons and oil lamps although their significance is not always clear.
The Physiologus, a resource for medieval artists, states that when in danger the rabbit seeks safety by climbing high up rocky cliffs, but when running back down, because of its short front legs, it is quickly caught by its predators.[5] Likewise, according to the teaching of St. Basil, men should seek his salvation in the rock of Christ, rather than descending to seek worldly things and falling into the hands of the devil. The negative view of the rabbit as an unclean animal, which derived from the Old Testament, always remained present for medieval artists and their patrons. Thus the rabbit can have a negative connotation of unbridled sexuality and lust or a positive meaning as a symbol of the steep path to salvation. Whether a representation of a hare in Medieval art represents man falling to his doom or striving for his eternal salvation is therefore open to interpretation, depending on context.
The three hares at Paderborn Cathedral
The Hasenfenster (hare windows) in Paderborn Cathedral and in the Muotathal Monastery in Switzerland, in which three hares are depicted with only three ears between them, forming a triangle, can be seen as a symbol of the Trinity, and probably go back to an old symbol for the passage of time. Though they have six ears, the three hares shown in Albrecht Dürer's woodcut, The Holy Family with Three Hares (1497), can also be seen as a symbol of the Trinity.[citation needed]
The idea of rabbits as a symbol of vitality, rebirth and resurrection derives from antiquity. This explains their role in connection with Easter, the resurrection of Christ. The unusual presentation in Christian iconography of a Madonna with the Christ Child playing with a white rabbit in Titian's Madonna of the Rabbit can thus be interpreted Christologically. Together with the basket of bread and wine, a symbol of the sacrificial death of Christ, the picture may be interpreted as the resurrection of Christ after death.
The phenomenon of superfetation, where embryos from different menstrual cycles are present in the uterus, results in hares and rabbits being able to give birth seemingly without having been impregnated, which caused them to be seen as symbols of virginity.[6] Rabbits also live underground, an echo of the tomb of Christ.
Titian, Madonna of the Rabbit, Paris, Louvre, c. 1530
As a symbol of fertility, white rabbits appear on a wing of the high altar in Freiburg Minster. They are playing at the feet of two pregnant women, Mary and Elizabeth. Martin Schongauer's engraving Jesus after the Temptation (1470) shows nine (three times three) rabbits at the feet of Jesus Christ, which can be seen as a sign of extreme vitality. In contrast, the tiny squashed rabbits at the base of the columns in Jan van Eyck's Rolin Madonna symbolize "Lust", as part of a set of references in the painting to all the Seven Deadly Sins.[7]
St. Jerome Reading in the Countryside, by Giovanni Bellini, with a white hare, 1505
Hunting scenes in the sacred context can be understood as the pursuit of good through evil. In the Romanesque sculpture (c. 1135) in the Königslutter imperial Cathedral, a hare pursued by a hunter symbolises the human soul seeking to escape persecution by the devil. Another painting, Hares Catch the Hunters, shows the triumph of good over evil. Alternatively, when an eagle pursues the hare, the eagle can be seen as symbolizing Christ and the hare, uncleanliness and the evil's terror in the face of the light.
In Christian iconography, the hare is an attribute of Saint Martin of Tours and Saint Alberto di Siena, because legend has it that both protected hares from persecution by dogs and hunters. They are also an attribute of the patron saint of Spanish hunters, Olegarius of Barcelona. White hares and rabbits were sometimes the symbols of chastity and purity.[8]
In secular art
Hunting still life with lap dog and monkey by Jan Weenix, 1714
Hare flask by German glassworks, 18th century, National Museum in Warsaw
In non-religious art of the modern era, the rabbit appears in the same context as in antiquity: as prey for the hunter, or representing spring or autumn, as well as an attribute of Venus and a symbol of physical love. In cycles of the Labours of the Months, rabbits frequently appear in the spring months. In Francesco del Cossa's painting of April in the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, Italy, Venus' children, surrounded by a flock of white rabbits, symbolize love and fertility.
In Italian Renaissance and Baroque art, rabbits are depicted more often than hares. In an allegory on lust by Pisanello, a naked woman lies on a couch with a rabbit at her feet. Pinturicchio's scene of Susanna in the Bath is displayed in the Vatican's Borgia Apartment. Here, each of the two old men are accompanied by a pair of hares or rabbits, clearly indicating wanton lust. In Piero di Cosimo's painting of Venus and Mars, a cupid resting on Venus clings to a white rabbit for similar reasons.
Still lifes in Dutch Golden Age painting and their Flemish equivalents often included a moralizing element which was understood by their original viewers without assistance: fish and meat can allude to religious dietary precepts, fish indicating fasting while great piles of meat indicate voluptas carnis (lusts of the flesh), especially if lovers are also depicted. Rabbits and birds, perhaps in the company of carrots and other phallic symbols, were easily understood by contemporary viewers in the same sense.
As small animals with fur, hares and rabbits allowed the artist to showcase his ability in painting this difficult material. Dead hares appear in the works of the earliest painter of still life collections of foodstuffs in a kitchen setting, Frans Snyders, and remain a common feature, very often sprawling hung up by a rear leg, in the works of Jan Fyt, Adriaen van Utrecht and many other specialists in the genre. By the end of the 17th century, the grander subgenre of the hunting trophy still life appeared, now set outdoors, as though at the back door of a palace or hunting lodge. Hares (but rarely rabbits) continued to feature in the works of the Dutch and Flemish originators of the genre, and later French painters like Jean-Baptiste Oudry.[9]
From the Middle Ages until modern times, the right to hunt was a vigorously defended privilege of the ruling classes. Hunting Still lifes, often in combination with hunting equipment, adorn the rooms of baroque palaces, indicating the rank and prestige of their owners. Jan Weenix' painting shows a still life reminiscent of a trophy case with birds and small game, fine fruits, a pet dog and a pet monkey, arranged in front of a classicising garden sculpture with the figure of Hercules and an opulent palace in the background. The wealth and luxurious lifestyle of the patron or owner is clearly shown.
The children's tales of the English author Beatrix Potter, illustrated by herself, include several titles featuring the badly behaved Peter Rabbit and other rabbit characters, including her first and most successful book The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), followed by The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904), and The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies (1909). Potter's anthropomorphic clothed rabbits are probably the most familiar artistic rabbits in the English-speaking world, no doubt influenced by illustrations by John Tenniel of the White Rabbit in Lewis Carroll's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Joseph Beuys, who always finds a place for a rabbit in his works, sees it as symbolizing resurrection. In the context of his action "How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare", he stated that the rabbit "...has a direct relationship to birth... For me, the rabbit is the symbol of incarnation. Because the rabbit shows in reality what man can only show in his thoughts. He buries himself, he buries himself in a depression. He incarnates himself in the earth, and that alone is important."
Masquerade (book) (1979), written and illustrated by the artist Kit Williams, is ostensibly a children's book, but contains elaborate clues to the location of a jewelled golden hare, also made by Williams, which he had buried at the location in England to which the clues in the book led. The hare was not found until 1982, in what later emerged as dubious circumstances.
The Welsh sculptor Barry Flanagan (1944-2009) was best known for his energetic bronzes of hares, which he produced throughout his career. Many have a comic element, and the length and thinness of the hare's body is often exaggerated.
Dürer's Young Hare
Young Hare, by Albrecht Dürer (1502)
Wolpertinger (2005), in the style of Albrecht Dürer
Probably one of the most famous depictions of an animal in the history of European art is the painting Young Hare by Albrecht Dürer, completed in 1502 and now preserved in the Albertina in Vienna. Dürer's watercolor is seen in the context of his other nature studies, such as his almost equally famous Meadow or his Bird Wings. He chose to paint these in watercolor or gouache, striving for the highest possible precision and "realistic" representation.
The hare pictured by Dürer probably does not have a symbolic meaning, but it does have an exceptional reception history. Reproductions of Dürer's Hare have often been a permanent component of bourgeois living rooms in Germany. The image has been printed in textbooks; published in countless reproductions; embossed in copper, wood or stone; represented three-dimensionally in plastic or plaster; encased in plexiglas; painted on ostrich eggs; printed on plastic bags; surreally distorted in Hasengiraffe ("Haregiraffe") by Martin Missfeldt;[10] reproduced as a joke by Fluxus artists;[11] and cast in gold; or sold cheaply in galleries and at art fairs
Since early 2000, Ottmar Hörl has created several works based on Dürer's Hare, including a giant pink version.[12] Sigmar Polke has also engaged with the hare on paper or textiles, or as part of his installations,[13] and even in rubber band form.[14] Dieter Roth's Köttelkarnikel ("Turd Bunny") is a copy of Dürer's Hare made from rabbit droppings,[15] and Klaus Staeck enclosed one in a little wooden box, with a cutout hole, so that it could look out and breathe. Dürer's Hare has even inspired a depiction of the mythological Wolpertinger. " (wikipedia.org)
"Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). Oryctolagus cuniculus includes the European rabbit species and its descendants, the world's 305 breeds[1] of domestic rabbit. Sylvilagus includes 13 wild rabbit species, among them the seven types of cottontail. The European rabbit, which has been introduced on every continent except Antarctica, is familiar throughout the world as a wild prey animal and as a domesticated form of livestock and pet. With its widespread effect on ecologies and cultures, the rabbit is, in many areas of the world, a part of daily life—as food, clothing, a companion, and a source of artistic inspiration.
Although once considered rodents, lagomorphs like rabbits have been discovered to have diverged separately and earlier than their rodent cousins and have a number of traits rodents lack, like two extra incisors.
Terminology and etymology
A male rabbit is called a buck; a female is called a doe. An older term for an adult rabbit used until the 18th century is coney (derived ultimately from the Latin cuniculus), while rabbit once referred only to the young animals.[2] Another term for a young rabbit is bunny, though this term is often applied informally (particularly by children) to rabbits generally, especially domestic ones. More recently, the term kit or kitten has been used to refer to a young rabbit.
A group of rabbits is known as a colony or nest (or, occasionally, a warren, though this more commonly refers to where the rabbits live).[3] A group of baby rabbits produced from a single mating is referred to as a litter[4] and a group of domestic rabbits living together is sometimes called a herd.[5]
The word rabbit itself derives from the Middle English rabet, a borrowing from the Walloon robète, which was a diminutive of the French or Middle Dutch robbe.[6]
Taxonomy
See also: List of leporids
Rabbits and hares were formerly classified in the order Rodentia (rodent) until 1912, when they were moved into a new order, Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas)....
In art, literature, and culture
Main article: Rabbits and hares in art
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Rabbits are often used as a symbol of fertility or rebirth, and have long been associated with spring and Easter as the Easter Bunny. The species' role as a prey animal with few defenses evokes vulnerability and innocence, and in folklore and modern children's stories, rabbits often appear as sympathetic characters, able to connect easily with youth of all kinds (for example, the Velveteen Rabbit, or Thumper in Bambi).
With its reputation as a prolific breeder, the rabbit juxtaposes sexuality with innocence, as in the Playboy Bunny. The rabbit (as a swift prey animal) is also known for its speed, agility, and endurance, symbolized (for example) by the marketing icons the Energizer Bunny and the Duracell Bunny.
Folklore
Main article: List of fictional hares and rabbits
The rabbit often appears in folklore as the trickster archetype, as he uses his cunning to outwit his enemies.
In Aztec mythology, a pantheon of four hundred rabbit gods known as Centzon Totochtin, led by Ometochtli or Two Rabbit, represented fertility, parties, and drunkenness.
In Central Africa, the common hare (Kalulu), is "inevitably described" as a trickster figure.[78]
In Chinese folklore, rabbits accompany Chang'e on the Moon. In the Chinese New Year, the zodiacal rabbit is one of the twelve celestial animals in the Chinese zodiac. Note that the Vietnamese zodiac includes a zodiacal cat in place of the rabbit, possibly because rabbits did not inhabit Vietnam.[citation needed] The most common explanation is that the ancient Vietnamese word for "rabbit" (mao) sounds like the Chinese word for "cat" (卯, mao).[79]
In Japanese tradition, rabbits live on the Moon where they make mochi, the popular snack of mashed sticky rice. This comes from interpreting the pattern of dark patches on the moon as a rabbit standing on tiptoes on the left pounding on an usu, a Japanese mortar.
In Jewish folklore, rabbits (shfanim שפנים) are associated with cowardice, a usage still current in contemporary Israeli spoken Hebrew (similar to the English colloquial use of "chicken" to denote cowardice).
In Korean mythology, as in Japanese, rabbits live on the moon making rice cakes ("Tteok" in Korean).
In Anishinaabe traditional beliefs, held by the Ojibwe and some other Native American peoples, Nanabozho, or Great Rabbit, is an important deity related to the creation of the world.
A Vietnamese mythological story portrays the rabbit of innocence and youthfulness. The gods of the myth are shown to be hunting and killing rabbits to show off their power.
Buddhism, Christianity, and Judaism have associations with an ancient circular motif called the three rabbits (or "three hares"). Its meaning ranges from "peace and tranquility", to purity or the Holy Trinity, to Kabbalistic levels of the soul or to the Jewish diaspora. The tripartite symbol also appears in heraldry and even tattoos.
The rabbit as trickster is a part of American popular culture, as Br'er Rabbit (from African-American folktales and, later, Disney animation) and Bugs Bunny (the cartoon character from Warner Bros.), for example.
Anthropomorphized rabbits have appeared in film and literature, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (the White Rabbit and the March Hare characters), in Watership Down (including the film and television adaptations), in Rabbit Hill (by Robert Lawson), and in the Peter Rabbit stories (by Beatrix Potter). In the 1920s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was a popular cartoon character.
A rabbit's foot may be carried as an amulet, believed to bring protection and good luck. This belief is found in many parts of the world, with the earliest use being recorded in Europe c. 600 BC.[80]
On the Isle of Portland in Dorset, UK, the rabbit is said to be unlucky and even speaking the creature's name can cause upset among older island residents. This is thought to date back to early times in the local quarrying industry where (to save space) extracted stones that were not fit for sale were set aside in what became tall, unstable walls. The local rabbits' tendency to burrow there would weaken the walls and their collapse resulted in injuries or even death. Thus, invoking the name of the culprit became an unlucky act to be avoided. In the local culture to this day, the rabbit (when he has to be referred to) may instead be called a “long ears” or “underground mutton”, so as not to risk bringing a downfall upon oneself.[81] While it was true 50 years ago[when?] that a pub on the island could be emptied by calling out the word "rabbit", this has become more fable than fact in modern times.[citation needed]
In other parts of Britain and in North America, invoking the rabbit's name may instead bring good luck. "Rabbit rabbit rabbit" is one variant of an apotropaic or talismanic superstition that involves saying or repeating the word "rabbit" (or "rabbits" or "white rabbits" or some combination thereof) out loud upon waking on the first day of each month, because doing so will ensure good fortune for the duration of that month.
The "rabbit test" is a term, first used in 1949, for the Friedman test, an early diagnostic tool for detecting a pregnancy in humans. It is a common misconception (or perhaps an urban legend) that the test-rabbit would die if the woman was pregnant. This led to the phrase "the rabbit died" becoming a euphemism for a positive pregnancy test. " (wikipedia.org)
"Easter,[nb 1] also called Pascha[nb 2] (Aramaic, Greek, Latin) or Resurrection Sunday,[nb 3] is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD.[12][13] It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus Christ, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.
Easter-observing Christians commonly refer to the week before Easter as Holy Week, which in Western Christianity begins on Palm Sunday (marking the entrance of Jesus in Jerusalem), includes Spy Wednesday (on which the betrayal of Jesus is mourned),[14] and contains the days of the Easter Triduum including Maundy Thursday, commemorating the Maundy and Last Supper,[15][16] as well as Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus.[17] In Eastern Christianity, the same days and events are commemorated with the names of days all starting with "Holy" or "Holy and Great"; and Easter itself might be called "Great and Holy Pascha", "Easter Sunday", "Pascha" or "Sunday of Pascha". In Western Christianity, Eastertide, or the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the 50th day, Pentecost Sunday. In Eastern Christianity, the Paschal season ends with Pentecost as well, but the leave-taking of the Great Feast of Pascha is on the 39th day, the day before the Feast of the Ascension.
Easter and its related holidays are moveable feasts, not falling on a fixed date; its date is computed based on a lunisolar calendar (solar year plus Moon phase) similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established only two rules, namely independence from the Hebrew calendar and worldwide uniformity. No details for the computation were specified; these were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and generated a number of controversies. It has come to be the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March.[18] Even if calculated on the basis of the more accurate Gregorian calendar, the date of that full moon sometimes differs from that of the astronomical first full moon after the March equinox.[19]
The English term is derived from the Saxon spring festival Ēostre; Easter is also linked to the Jewish Passover by its name (Hebrew: פֶּסַח pesach, Aramaic: פָּסחָא pascha are the basis of the term Pascha), by its origin (according to the synoptic Gospels, both the crucifixion and the resurrection took place during the week of Passover)[20][21] and by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In most European languages, both the Christian Easter and the Jewish Passover are called by the same name; and in the older English versions of the Bible, as well, the term Easter was used to translate Passover.[22] Easter customs vary across the Christian world, and include sunrise services, midnight vigils, exclamations and exchanges of Paschal greetings, clipping the church (England),[23] and decoration and the communal breaking of Easter eggs (a symbol of the empty tomb).[24][25][26] The Easter lily, a symbol of the resurrection in Western Christianity,[27][28] traditionally decorates the chancel area of churches on this day and for the rest of Eastertide.[29] Additional customs that have become associated with Easter and are observed by both Christians and some non-Christians include Easter parades, communal dancing (Eastern Europe), the Easter Bunny and egg hunting.[30][31][32][33][34] There are also traditional Easter foods that vary by region and culture.
Etymology
Main articles: Ēostre and Names of Easter
The modern English term Easter, cognate with modern Dutch ooster and German Ostern, developed from an Old English word that usually appears in the form Ēastrun, -on, or -an; but also as Ēastru, -o; and Ēastre or Ēostre.[nb 4] Bede provides the only documentary source for the etymology of the word, in his eighth-century The Reckoning of Time. He wrote that Ēosturmōnaþ (Old English 'Month of Ēostre', translated in Bede's time as "Paschal month") was an English month, corresponding to April, which he says "was once called after a goddess of theirs named Ēostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month".[35]
In Latin and Greek, the Christian celebration was, and still is, called Pascha (Greek: Πάσχα), a word derived from Aramaic פסחא (Paskha), cognate to Hebrew פֶּסַח (Pesach). The word originally denoted the Jewish festival known in English as Passover, commemorating the Jewish Exodus from slavery in Egypt.[36][37] As early as the 50s of the 1st century, Paul the Apostle, writing from Ephesus to the Christians in Corinth,[38] applied the term to Christ, and it is unlikely that the Ephesian and Corinthian Christians were the first to hear Exodus 12 interpreted as speaking about the death of Jesus, not just about the Jewish Passover ritual.[39] In most languages, Germanic languages such as English being exceptions, the feast is known by names derived from Greek and Latin Pascha.[9][40] Pascha is also a name by which Jesus himself is remembered in the Orthodox Church, especially in connection with his resurrection and with the season of its celebration.[41] Others call the holiday "Resurrection Sunday" or "Resurrection Day," after the Greek: Ἀνάστασις, romanized: Anastasis, lit. 'Resurrection' day.[10][11][42][43]
Theological significance
Easter celebrates Jesus' supernatural resurrection from the dead, which is one of the chief tenets of the Christian faith.[44] The resurrection established Jesus as the Son of God and is cited as proof that God will righteously judge the world.[45] Paul writes that, for those who trust in Jesus's death and resurrection, "death is swallowed up in victory." The First Epistle of Peter declares that God has given believers "a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead". Christian theology holds that, through faith in the working of God, those who follow Jesus are spiritually resurrected with him so that they may walk in a new way of life and receive eternal salvation, and can hope to be physically resurrected to dwell with him in the Kingdom of Heaven.[45]
Easter is linked to Passover and the Exodus from Egypt recorded in the Old Testament through the Last Supper, sufferings, and crucifixion of Jesus that preceded the resurrection.[40] According to the three Synoptic Gospels, Jesus gave the Passover meal a new meaning, as in the upper room during the Last Supper he prepared himself and his disciples for his death.[40] He identified the bread and cup of wine as his body, soon to be sacrificed, and his blood, soon to be shed. The Apostle Paul states, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, "Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. This refers to the requirement in Jewish law that Jews eliminate all chametz, or leavening, from their homes in advance of Passover, and to the allegory of Jesus as the Paschal lamb.[46][47]
Early Christianity
The Last Supper celebrated by Jesus and his disciples. The early Christians, too, would have celebrated this meal to commemorate Jesus's death and subsequent resurrection.
As the Gospels affirm that both the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus during the week of Passover, the first Christians timed the observance of the annual celebration of the resurrections in relation to Passover.[48] Direct evidence for a more fully formed Christian festival of Pascha (Easter) begins to appear in the mid-2nd century. Perhaps the earliest extant primary source referring to Easter is a mid-2nd-century Paschal homily attributed to Melito of Sardis, which characterizes the celebration as a well-established one.[49] Evidence for another kind of annually recurring Christian festival, those commemorating the martyrs, began to appear at about the same time as the above homily.[50]
While martyrs' days (usually the individual dates of martyrdom) were celebrated on fixed dates in the local solar calendar, the date of Easter was fixed by means of the local Jewish[51] lunisolar calendar. This is consistent with the celebration of Easter having entered Christianity during its earliest, Jewish, period, but does not leave the question free of doubt.[52]
The ecclesiastical historian Socrates Scholasticus attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of pre-Christian custom, "just as many other customs have been established", stating that neither Jesus nor his Apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival. Although he describes the details of the Easter celebration as deriving from local custom, he insists the feast itself is universally observed.[53]
Date
A stained-glass window depicting the Passover Lamb, a concept integral to the foundation of Easter[40][54]
Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars (both of which follow the cycle of the sun and the seasons). Instead, the date for Easter is determined on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the Council. No details for the computation were specified; these were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and generated a number of controversies. (See also Computus and Reform of the date of Easter.) In particular, the Council did not decree that Easter must fall on Sunday, but this was already the practice almost everywhere.[55]
In Western Christianity, using the Gregorian calendar, Easter always falls on a Sunday between 22 March and 25 April,[56] within about seven days after the astronomical full moon.[57] The following day, Easter Monday, is a legal holiday in many countries with predominantly Christian traditions.[58]
Eastern Orthodox Christians base Paschal date calculations on the Julian calendar. Because of the thirteen-day difference between the calendars between 1900 and 2099, 21 March corresponds, during the 21st century, to 3 April in the Gregorian calendar. Since the Julian calendar is no longer used as the civil calendar of the countries where Eastern Christian traditions predominate, Easter varies between 4 April and 8 May in the Gregorian calendar. Also, because the Julian "full moon" is always several days after the astronomical full moon, the eastern Easter is often later, relative to the visible lunar phases, than western Easter.[59]
Among the Oriental Orthodox, some churches have changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar and the date for Easter, as for other fixed and moveable feasts, is the same as in the Western church.[60]
Computations
Main article: Date of Easter
In 725, Bede succinctly wrote, "The Sunday following the full Moon which falls on or after the equinox will give the lawful Easter."[61] However, this does not precisely reflect the ecclesiastical rules. The full moon referred to (called the Paschal full moon) is not an astronomical full moon, but the 14th day of a lunar month. Another difference is that the astronomical equinox is a natural astronomical phenomenon, which can fall on 19, 20 or 21 March,[62] while the ecclesiastical date is fixed by convention on 21 March.[63]
In applying the ecclesiastical rules, Christian churches use 21 March as the starting point in determining the date of Easter, from which they find the next full moon, etc. The Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches continue to use the Julian calendar. Their starting point in determining the date of Orthodox Easter is also 21 March but according to the Julian reckoning, which in the current century corresponds to 3 April in the Gregorian calendar.[citation needed]
In addition, the lunar tables of the Julian calendar are currently five days behind those of the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, the Julian computation of the Paschal full moon is a full five days later than the astronomical full moon. The result of this combination of solar and lunar discrepancies is divergence in the date of Easter in most years (see table).[64]
Easter is determined on the basis of lunisolar cycles. The lunar year consists of 30-day and 29-day lunar months, generally alternating, with an embolismic month added periodically to bring the lunar cycle into line with the solar cycle. In each solar year (1 January to 31 December inclusive), the lunar month beginning with an ecclesiastical new moon falling in the 29-day period from 8 March to 5 April inclusive is designated as the paschal lunar month for that year.[65]
Easter is the third Sunday in the paschal lunar month, or, in other words, the Sunday after the paschal lunar month's 14th day. The 14th of the paschal lunar month is designated by convention as the Paschal full moon, although the 14th of the lunar month may differ from the date of the astronomical full moon by up to two days.[65] Since the ecclesiastical new moon falls on a date from 8 March to 5 April inclusive, the paschal full moon (the 14th of that lunar month) must fall on a date from 22 March to 18 April inclusive.[64]
The Gregorian calculation of Easter was based on a method devised by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius (or Lilio) for adjusting the epacts of the Moon,[66] and has been adopted by almost all Western Christians and by Western countries which celebrate national holidays at Easter. For the British Empire and colonies, a determination of the date of Easter Sunday using Golden Numbers and Sunday letters was defined by the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 with its Annexe. This was designed to match exactly the Gregorian calculation.[citation needed]
Controversies over the date
Main article: Easter controversy
A five-part Russian Orthodox icon depicting the Easter story.
Eastern Orthodox Christians use a different computation for the date of Easter than the Western churches.
The precise date of Easter has at times been a matter of contention. By the later 2nd century, it was widely accepted that the celebration of the holiday was a practice of the disciples and an undisputed tradition. The Quartodeciman controversy, the first of several Easter controversies, arose concerning the date on which the holiday should be celebrated.[citation needed]
The term "Quartodeciman" refers to the practice of ending the Lenten fast on Nisan 14 of the Hebrew calendar, "the LORD's passover".[67] According to the church historian Eusebius, the Quartodeciman Polycarp (bishop of Smyrna, by tradition a disciple of John the Apostle) debated the question with Anicetus (bishop of Rome). The Roman province of Asia was Quartodeciman, while the Roman and Alexandrian churches continued the fast until the Sunday following (the Sunday of Unleavened Bread), wishing to associate Easter with Sunday. Neither Polycarp nor Anicetus persuaded the other, but they did not consider the matter schismatic either, parting in peace and leaving the question unsettled.[citation needed]
Controversy arose when Victor, bishop of Rome a generation after Anicetus, attempted to excommunicate Polycrates of Ephesus and all other bishops of Asia for their Quartodecimanism. According to Eusebius, a number of synods were convened to deal with the controversy, which he regarded as all ruling in support of Easter on Sunday.[68] Polycrates (circa 190), however, wrote to Victor defending the antiquity of Asian Quartodecimanism. Victor's attempted excommunication was apparently rescinded, and the two sides reconciled upon the intervention of bishop Irenaeus and others, who reminded Victor of the tolerant precedent of Anicetus.[citation needed]
Quartodecimanism seems to have lingered into the 4th century, when Socrates of Constantinople recorded that some Quartodecimans were deprived of their churches by John Chrysostom[69] and that some were harassed by Nestorius.[70]
It is not known how long the Nisan 14 practice continued. But both those who followed the Nisan 14 custom, and those who set Easter to the following Sunday, had in common the custom of consulting their Jewish neighbors to learn when the month of Nisan would fall, and setting their festival accordingly. By the later 3rd century, however, some Christians began to express dissatisfaction with the custom of relying on the Jewish community to determine the date of Easter. The chief complaint was that the Jewish communities sometimes erred in setting Passover to fall before the Northern Hemisphere spring equinox.[71][72] The Sardica paschal table[73] confirms these complaints, for it indicates that the Jews of some eastern Mediterranean city (possibly Antioch) fixed Nisan 14 on dates well before the spring equinox on multiple occasions.[74]
Because of this dissatisfaction with reliance on the Jewish calendar, some Christians began to experiment with independent computations.[nb 5] Others, however, believed that the customary practice of consulting Jews should continue, even if the Jewish computations were in error.[citation needed]
First Council of Nicaea (325 AD)
Main article: First Council of Nicaea
This controversy between those who advocated independent computations, and those who wished to continue the custom of relying on the Jewish calendar, was formally resolved by the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which endorsed changing to an independent computation by the Christian community in order to celebrate in common. This effectively required the abandonment of the old custom of consulting the Jewish community in those places where it was still used. Epiphanius of Salamis wrote in the mid-4th century:
the emperor ... convened a council of 318 bishops ... in the city of Nicaea ... They passed certain ecclesiastical canons at the council besides, and at the same time decreed in regard to the Passover [i.e., Easter] that there must be one unanimous concord on the celebration of God's holy and supremely excellent day. For it was variously observed by people; some kept it early, some between [the disputed dates], but others late. And in a word, there was a great deal of controversy at that time.[77]
Canons[78] and sermons[79] condemning the custom of computing Easter's date based on the Jewish calendar indicate that this custom (called "protopaschite" by historians) did not die out at once, but persisted for a time after the Council of Nicaea.
Dionysius Exiguus, and others following him, maintained that the 318 bishops assembled at Nicaea had specified a particular method of determining the date of Easter; subsequent scholarship has refuted this tradition.[80] In any case, in the years following the council, the computational system that was worked out by the church of Alexandria came to be normative. The Alexandrian system, however, was not immediately adopted throughout Christian Europe. Following Augustalis' treatise De ratione Paschae (On the Measurement of Easter), Rome retired the earlier 8-year cycle in favor of Augustalis' 84-year lunisolar calendar cycle, which it used until 457. It then switched to Victorius of Aquitaine's adaptation of the Alexandrian system.[81][82]
Because this Victorian cycle differed from the unmodified Alexandrian cycle in the dates of some of the Paschal Full Moons, and because it tried to respect the Roman custom of fixing Easter to the Sunday in the week of the 16th to the 22nd of the lunar month (rather than the 15th to the 21st as at Alexandria), by providing alternative "Latin" and "Greek" dates in some years, occasional differences in the date of Easter as fixed by Alexandrian rules continued.[81][82] The Alexandrian rules were adopted in the West following the tables of Dionysius Exiguus in 525.[citation needed]
Early Christians in Britain and Ireland also used an 84-year cycle. From the 5th century onward this cycle set its equinox to 25 March and fixed Easter to the Sunday falling in the 14th to the 20th of the lunar month inclusive.[83][84] This 84-year cycle was replaced by the Alexandrian method in the course of the 7th and 8th centuries. Churches in western continental Europe used a late Roman method until the late 8th century during the reign of Charlemagne, when they finally adopted the Alexandrian method. Since 1582, when the Roman Catholic Church adopted the Gregorian calendar while most of Europe used the Julian calendar, the date on which Easter is celebrated has again differed.[85]
The Greek island of Syros, whose population is divided almost equally between Catholics and Orthodox, is one of the few places where the two Churches share a common date for Easter, with the Catholics accepting the Orthodox date—a practice helping considerably in maintaining good relations between the two communities.[86] Conversely, Orthodox Christians in Finland celebrate Easter according to the Western Christian date.[87]
Proposed reforms of the date
See also: Reform of the date of Easter
The congregation lighting their candles from the new flame, just as the priest has retrieved it from the altar – note that the picture is flash-illuminated; all electric lighting is off, and only the oil lamps in front of the Iconostasis remain lit. (St. George Greek Orthodox Church, Adelaide).
In the 20th and 21st centuries, some individuals and institutions have propounded changing the method of calculating the date for Easter, the most prominent proposal being the Sunday after the second Saturday in April. Despite having some support, proposals to reform the date have not been implemented.[88] An Orthodox congress of Eastern Orthodox bishops, which included representatives mostly from the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Serbian Patriarch, met in Constantinople in 1923, where the bishops agreed to the Revised Julian calendar.[89]
The original form of this calendar would have determined Easter using precise astronomical calculations based on the meridian of Jerusalem.[90][91] However, all the Eastern Orthodox countries that subsequently adopted the Revised Julian calendar adopted only that part of the revised calendar that applied to festivals falling on fixed dates in the Julian calendar. The revised Easter computation that had been part of the original 1923 agreement was never permanently implemented in any Orthodox diocese.[89]
In the United Kingdom, Parliament passed the Easter Act 1928 to change the date of Easter to be the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April (or, in other words, the Sunday in the period from 9 to 15 April). However, the legislation has not been implemented, although it remains on the Statute book and could be implemented, subject to approval by the various Christian churches.[92]
At a summit in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997, the World Council of Churches (WCC) proposed a reform in the calculation of Easter which would have replaced the present divergent practices of calculating Easter with modern scientific knowledge taking into account actual astronomical instances of the spring equinox and full moon based on the meridian of Jerusalem, while also following the tradition of Easter being on the Sunday following the full moon.[93] The recommended World Council of Churches changes would have sidestepped the calendar issues and eliminated the difference in date between the Eastern and Western churches. The reform was proposed for implementation starting in 2001, and despite repeated calls for reform, it was not ultimately adopted by any member body.[94][95]
In January 2016, the Anglican Communion, Coptic Orthodox Church, Greek Orthodox Church, and Roman Catholic Church again considered agreeing on a common, universal date for Easter, while also simplifying the calculation of that date, with either the second or third Sunday in April being popular choices.[96]
In November 2022, the Patriarch of Constantinople said that conversations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches had begun to determine a common date for the celebration of Easter. The agreement is expected to be reached for the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in 2025.[97]
Table of the dates of Easter by Gregorian and Julian calendars
See also: List of dates for Easter
The WCC presented comparative data of the relationships:
Table of dates of Easter 2001–2025 (in Gregorian dates)[98] Year Full Moon Jewish Passover [note 1] Astronomical Easter [note 2] Gregorian Easter Julian Easter
2001 8 April 15 April
2002 28 March 31 March 5 May
2003 16 April 17 April 20 April 27 April
2004 5 April 6 April 11 April
2005 25 March 24 April 27 March 1 May
2006 13 April 16 April 23 April
2007 2 April 3 April 8 April
2008 21 March 20 April 23 March 27 April
2009 9 April 12 April 19 April
2010 30 March 4 April
2011 18 April 19 April 24 April
2012 6 April 7 April 8 April 15 April
2013 27 March 26 March 31 March 5 May
2014 15 April 20 April
2015 4 April 5 April 12 April
2016 23 March 23 April 27 March 1 May
2017 11 April 16 April
2018 31 March 1 April 8 April
2019 21 March 20 April 24 March 21 April 28 April
2020 8 April 9 April 12 April 19 April
2021 28 March 4 April 2 May
2022 16 April 17 April 24 April
2023 6 April 9 April 16 April
2024 25 March 23 April 31 March 5 May
2025 13 April 20 April
Jewish Passover is on Nisan 15 of its calendar. It commences at sunset preceding the date indicated (as does Easter in many traditions).
Astronomical Easter is the first Sunday after the astronomical full moon after the astronomical March equinox as measured at the meridian of Jerusalem according to this WCC proposal.
Position in the church year
Further information: Liturgical year
Western Christianity
Easter and other named days and day ranges around Lent and Easter in Western Christianity, with the fasting days of Lent numbered
In most branches of Western Christianity, Easter is preceded by Lent, a period of penitence that begins on Ash Wednesday, lasts 40 days (not counting Sundays), and is often marked with fasting. The week before Easter, known as Holy Week, is an important time for observers to commemorate the final week of Jesus' life on earth.[99] The Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday, with the Wednesday before Easter being known as Spy Wednesday (or Holy Wednesday). The last three days before Easter are Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday (sometimes referred to as Silent Saturday).[100]
Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday respectively commemorate Jesus's entry in Jerusalem, the Last Supper and the crucifixion. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are sometimes referred to as the Easter Triduum (Latin for "Three Days"). Many churches begin celebrating Easter late in the evening of Holy Saturday at a service called the Easter Vigil.
The week beginning with Easter Sunday is called Easter Week or the Octave of Easter, and each day is prefaced with "Easter", e.g. Easter Monday (a public holiday in many countries), Easter Tuesday (a much less widespread public holiday), etc. Easter Saturday is therefore the Saturday after Easter Sunday. The day before Easter is properly called Holy Saturday. Eastertide, or Paschaltide, the season of Easter, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts until the day of Pentecost, seven weeks later.
Eastern Christianity
In Eastern Christianity, the spiritual preparation for Easter/Pascha begins with Great Lent, which starts on Clean Monday and lasts for 40 continuous days (including Sundays). Great Lent ends on a Friday, and the next day is Lazarus Saturday. The Vespers which begins Lazarus Saturday officially brings Great Lent to a close, although the fast continues through the following week, i.e. Holy Week. After Lazarus Saturday comes Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and finally Easter/Pascha itself, and the fast is broken immediately after the Paschal Divine Liturgy.[citation needed]
The Paschal Vigil begins with the Midnight Office, which is the last service of the Lenten Triodion and is timed so that it ends a little before midnight on Holy Saturday night. At the stroke of midnight the Paschal celebration itself begins, consisting of Paschal Matins, Paschal Hours, and Paschal Divine Liturgy.[101]
The liturgical season from Easter to the Sunday of All Saints (the Sunday after Pentecost) is known as the Pentecostarion (the "50 days"). The week which begins on Easter Sunday is called Bright Week, during which there is no fasting, even on Wednesday and Friday. The Afterfeast of Easter lasts 39 days, with its Apodosis (leave-taking) on the day before the Feast of the Ascension. Pentecost Sunday is the 50th day from Easter (counted inclusively).[102] In the Pentecostarion published by Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece, the Great Feast Pentecost is noted in the synaxarion portion of Matins to be the 8th Sunday of Pascha. However, the Paschal greeting of "Christ is risen!" is no longer exchanged among the faithful after the Apodosis of Pascha.
Liturgical observance
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, fresco by Piero della Francesca, 1463
Western Christianity
The Easter festival is kept in many different ways among Western Christians. The traditional, liturgical observation of Easter, as practised among Roman Catholics, Lutherans,[103] and some Anglicans begins on the night of Holy Saturday with the Easter Vigil which follows an ancient liturgy involving symbols of light, candles and water and numerous readings form the Old and New Testament.[104]
Services continue on Easter Sunday and in a number of countries on Easter Monday. In parishes of the Moravian Church, as well as some other denominations such as the Methodist Churches, there is a tradition of Easter Sunrise Services[105] often starting in cemeteries[106] in remembrance of the biblical narrative in the Gospels, or other places in the open where the sunrise is visible.[107]
In some traditions, Easter services typically begin with the Paschal greeting: "Christ is risen!" The response is: "He is risen indeed. Alleluia!"[108]
Eastern Christianity
Icon of the Resurrection by an unknown 17th-century Bulgarian artist
Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholics and Byzantine Rite Lutherans have a similar emphasis on Easter in their calendars, and many of their liturgical customs are very similar.[109]
Preparation for Easter begins with the season of Great Lent, which begins on Clean Monday.[110] While the end of Lent is Lazarus Saturday, fasting does not end until Easter Sunday.[111] The Orthodox service begins late Saturday evening, observing the Jewish tradition that evening is the start of liturgical holy days.[111]
The church is darkened, then the priest lights a candle at midnight, representing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Altar servers light additional candles, with a procession which moves three times around the church to represent the three days in the tomb.[111] The service continues early into Sunday morning, with a feast to end the fasting. An additional service is held later that day on Easter Sunday.[111]
Non-observing Christian groups
Many Puritans saw traditional feasts of the established Anglican Church, such as All Saints' Day and Easter, as abominations because the Bible does not mention them.[112][113] Conservative Reformed denominations such as the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America likewise reject the celebration of Easter as a violation of the regulative principle of worship and what they see as its non-Scriptural origin.[114][115]
Members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), as part of their historic testimony against times and seasons, do not celebrate or observe Easter or any traditional feast days of the established Church, believing instead that "every day is the Lord's Day," and that elevation of one day above others suggests that it is acceptable to do un-Christian acts on other days.[116][117] During the 17th and 18th centuries, Quakers were persecuted for this non-observance of Holy Days.[118]
Groups such as the Restored Church of God reject the celebration of Easter, seeing it as originating in a pagan spring festival adopted by the Roman Catholic Church.[119][non-primary source needed]
Jehovah's Witnesses maintain a similar view, observing a yearly commemorative service of the Last Supper and the subsequent execution of Christ on the evening of Nisan 14 (as they calculate the dates derived from the lunar Hebrew calendar). It is commonly referred to by many Witnesses as simply "The Memorial". Jehovah's Witnesses believe that such verses as Luke 22:19–20 and 1 Corinthians 11:26 constitute a commandment to remember the death of Christ though not the resurrection.[120][non-primary source needed]
Easter celebrations around the world
Main article: Easter customs
In countries where Christianity is a state religion, or those with large Christian populations, Easter is often a public holiday. As Easter always falls on a Sunday, many countries in the world also recognize Easter Monday as a public holiday. Some retail stores, shopping malls, and restaurants are closed on Easter Sunday. Good Friday, which occurs two days before Easter Sunday, is also a public holiday in many countries, as well as in 12 U.S. states. Even in states where Good Friday is not a holiday, many financial institutions, stock markets, and public schools are closed - the few banks that are normally open on regular Sundays are closed on Easter.[citation needed]
Boris Kustodiev's Pascha Greetings (1912) shows traditional Russian khristosovanie (exchanging a triple kiss), with such foods as red eggs, kulich and paskha in the background.
In the Nordic countries Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday are public holidays,[121] and Good Friday and Easter Monday are bank holidays.[122] In Denmark, Iceland and Norway Maundy Thursday is also a public holiday. It is a holiday for most workers, except those operating some shopping malls which keep open for a half-day. Many businesses give their employees almost a week off, called Easter break.[123] Schools are closed between Palm Sunday and Easter Monday. According to a 2014 poll, 6 of 10 Norwegians travel during Easter, often to a countryside cottage; 3 of 10 said their typical Easter included skiing.[124]
In the Netherlands both Easter Sunday and Easter Monday are national holidays. Like first and second Christmas Day, they are both considered Sundays, which results in a first and a second Easter Sunday, after which the week continues to a Tuesday.[125]
In Greece Good Friday and Saturday as well as Easter Sunday and Monday are traditionally observed public holidays. It is custom for employees of the public sector to receive Easter bonuses as a gift from the state.[126]
In Commonwealth nations Easter Day is rarely a public holiday, as is the case for celebrations which fall on a Sunday. In the United Kingdom both Good Friday and Easter Monday are bank holidays, except for Scotland, where only Good Friday is a bank holiday.[127] In Canada, Easter Monday is a statutory holiday for federal employees. In the Canadian province of Quebec, either Good Friday or Easter Monday are statutory holidays (although most companies give both).[128]
In Australia, Easter is associated with harvest time.[129] Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays across all states and territories. "Easter Saturday" (the Saturday before Easter Sunday) is a public holiday in every state except Tasmania and Western Australia, while Easter Sunday itself is a public holiday only in New South Wales. Easter Tuesday is additionally a conditional public holiday in Tasmania, varying between award, and was also a public holiday in Victoria until 1994.[130]
In the United States, because Easter falls on a Sunday, which is already a non-working day for federal and state employees, it has not been designated as a federal or state holiday.[131] Easter parades are held in many American cities, involving festive strolling processions.[30]
Easter eggs
Main article: Easter egg
Traditional customs
The egg is an ancient symbol of new life and rebirth.[132] In Christianity it became associated with Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection.[133] The custom of the Easter egg originated in the early Christian community of Mesopotamia, who stained eggs red in memory of the blood of Christ, shed at his crucifixion.[134][135] As such, for Christians, the Easter egg is a symbol of the empty tomb.[25][26] The oldest tradition is to use dyed chicken eggs.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church Easter eggs are blessed by a priest[136] both in families' baskets together with other foods forbidden during Great Lent and alone for distribution or in church or elsewhere.
Traditional red Easter eggs for blessing by a priest
Traditional red Easter eggs for blessing by a priest
A priest blessing baskets with Easter eggs and other foods forbidden during Great Lent
A priest blessing baskets with Easter eggs and other foods forbidden during Great Lent
A priest distributing blessed Easter eggs after blessing the Soyuz rocket
A priest distributing blessed Easter eggs after blessing the Soyuz rocket
Easter eggs are a widely popular symbol of new life among the Eastern Orthodox but also in folk traditions in Slavic countries and elsewhere. A batik-like decorating process known as pisanka produces intricate, brilliantly colored eggs. The celebrated House of Fabergé workshops created exquisite jewelled Easter eggs for the Russian Imperial family from 1885 to 1916.[137]
Modern customs
A modern custom in the Western world is to substitute decorated chocolate, or plastic eggs filled with candy such as jellybeans; as many people give up sweets as their Lenten sacrifice, individuals enjoy them at Easter after having abstained from them during the preceding forty days of Lent.[138]
Easter eggs, a symbol of the empty tomb, are a popular cultural symbol of Easter.[24]
Easter eggs, a symbol of the empty tomb, are a popular cultural symbol of Easter.[24]
Marshmallow rabbits, candy eggs and other treats in an Easter basket
Marshmallow rabbits, candy eggs and other treats in an Easter basket
An Easter egg decorated with the Easter Bunny
An Easter egg decorated with the Easter Bunny
Manufacturing their first Easter egg in 1875, British chocolate company Cadbury sponsors the annual Easter egg hunt which takes place in over 250 National Trust locations in the United Kingdom.[139][140] On Easter Monday, the President of the United States holds an annual Easter egg roll on the White House lawn for young children.[141]
Easter Bunny
Main article: Easter Bunny
In some traditions, the children put out their empty baskets for the Easter bunny to fill while they sleep. They wake to find their baskets filled with candy eggs and other treats.[142][31] A custom originating in Germany,[142] the Easter Bunny is a popular legendary anthropomorphic Easter gift-giving character analogous to Santa Claus in American culture. Many children around the world follow the tradition of coloring hard-boiled eggs and giving baskets of candy.[31] Historically, foxes, cranes and storks were also sometimes named as the mystical creatures.[142] Since the rabbit is a pest in Australia, the Easter Bilby is available as an alternative.[143]
Music
[icon]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2021)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier:
Messe pour le samedi de Pâques, for soloists, chorus and continuo, H.8 (1690).
Prose pour le jour de Pâques, for 3 voices and continuo, H.13 (1670)
Chant joyeux du temps de Pâques, for soloists, chorus, 2 treble viols, and continuo, H.339 (1685).
O filii à 3 voix pareilles, for 3 voices, 2 flutes, and continuo, H.312 (1670).
Pour Pâques, for 2 voices, 2 flutes, and continuo, H.308 (1670).
O filii pour les voix, violons, flûtes et orgue, for soloists, chorus, flutes, strings, and continuo, H.356 (1685?).
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault: Motet pour le Saint jour de Pâques, in F major, opus 73
André Campra: Au Christ triomphant, cantata for Easter
Dieterich Buxtehude: Cantatas BuxWV 15 and BuxWV 62
Carl Heinrich Graun: Easter Oratorio
Henrich Biber: Missa Christi resurgentis C.3 (1674)
Michael Praetorius: Easter Mass
Johann Sebastian Bach: Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 4; Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret, BWV 31; Oster-Oratorium, BWV 249.
Georg Philipp Telemann, more than 100 cantatas for Eastertide.
Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens: Sonata n° 2 "O Filii", Sonata n° 3 "Pascale", for organ.
Charles Gounod: Messe solennelle de Pâques (1883).
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: La Grande Pâque russe, symphonic overture (1888).
Sergueï Vassilievitch Rachmaninov: Suite pour deux pianos n°1 – Pâques, op. 5, n° 4 (1893)." (wikipedia.org)