by Denise Calaman

Created on: March 16, 2009   Last Updated: December 07, 2010

In the weeks before Easter many children and adults enjoy painting Easter eggs. In the United States alone, over 30 million eggs are sold the week of Easter; more than any other week of the year. People paint Easter eggs to be given away as gifts, to be used in games and placed in Easter baskets. But most often people paint eggs simply for the tradition of painting Easter eggs. Most of us don't think about how Easter eggs became tradition, we just accept it as something we do around Easter. However; the origins of painting Easter eggs and the egg itself symbolizing Easter, isn't a North American or a tradition of Western culture but an ancient tradition, one that dates back over 1,000 years.

Hundreds of years before the concept of Christianity was introduced to the world Egyptians commonly buried eggs inside of tombs with the deceased as a symbol of life, death and resurrection. Similarly, the ancient Greeks often placed eggs on top of grave markers because they too, believed the egg symbolized the life and death process. After Christianity was introduced to the ancient world, the egg continued to be a symbol of life. Ancient Romans believed that all life came from the egg and ancient Christians believed the egg was the seed of life and used it to symbolize the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because Christians believed that the egg was a symbol of new life, during medieval times they refrained from eating eggs during the Lenten season.

Throughout the history of Christianity the egg continued to be used in Easter celebrations, symbolizing life. In modern Christian times, in the 1880's, in some parts of Germany, eggs were substituted for birth certificates. As a symbol of new life the eggs were dyed and the names of newborns were etched on eggs along with their dates of birth.

Eggs were first decorated for Easter in ancient and medieval times. They were beautifully painted in detail to be given as gifts and used in spring festivals. The wealthy often decorated their eggs elaborately with gold or gold leaf while peasants used what was readily available in nature to decorate their eggs. Gorse flower, spinach, insects and even wood chips were used to dye their eggs.

Today, water based dyes or food coloring is used to paint Easter eggs. Children often add stickers, glitter and other decorations to their painted eggs. Many people enjoy chocolate eggs and jelly beans at Easter and plastic eggs are used as decorations or used to hold candies, money and other treats. Eggs continue to surround us at Easter and are probably the most popular Easter decorations but few people know the true history as to why we use eggs instead of many other traditional springtime decorations to help us celebrate Easter.

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