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Egg’s benediction

A crucifixion, a resurrection, and for some strange reason, a rabbit hiding eggs in the backyard — what’s the deal with Easter anyway?

While I ran around the backyard looking for little coloured eggs, my face covered in chocolate and that yellow stuff in Cadbury Crème eggs, my religious friends popped by on their way to church for an extra long mass. Born and raised a godless heathen, I couldn’t understand why they weren’t on Easter egg hunts of their own. They explained to me about Jesus dying on the cross and then coming back to life, and I had to say that it was news to me.

My concept of Easter, painting eggs, waking up to chocolate bunnies, and going on a scavenger hunt, was a little different than theirs (and a lot more fun, from what I could see). But as much fun as I was having, I had to admit their concept of Easter seemed a lot more important than mine – surely they didn’t give me a whole day off school just to stuff my face with chocolate?

It’s many, many years later, and I still couldn’t figure out how two versions of the same holiday could be so different – reconciling the birth of Christ with Santa Claus was difficult enough.

The Pagan ‘Eastre’

The first mention of "Easter" goes back to so-called pagan times, and a spring festival for Eastre, or Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of spring, fertility, and the dawn.

All across Europe and Asia, villages would hold fertility rites to honour the gods. In return for all the blood sacrifices and good times, the gods would in turn make the crops grow and the farmer’s prosper.

The resurrection of Jesus was a new twist to an old theme. Tammuz, an ancient Babylonian god, also came back to life at this time of year, as did Osiris, an Egyptian god, and the Greek god Adonis.

The various rites practised at this time are responsible for our modern day traditions involving a bunny, little yellow chicks and coloured eggs.

The Easter egg tradition goes way back to the first civilizations, where it was believed that the world itself was born of an egg – heaven and earth hatched from a kind of world-egg. Like spring and the first green buds to break soil, eggs are also associated with the concepts of birth and creation. Eggs and egg symbolism were a part of ancient ceremonies that have been handed down through the civilizations.

Persians and Greeks exchanged eggs at their spring festivals before Emperor Constantine brought Christianity to these parts of the world. Because people are loathe to part with their traditions, it is believed that the eggs were simply adopted as part of the Christian ritual as an acceptable symbol of the Lord’s resurrection.

The story of the decorated Easter egg goes back to pagan days, when people used to decorate their eggs for good luck. Usually this meant drawing a few symbols and a few well-chosen runes, but wealthier people hired artists and craftsmen to gild their eggs with small paintings, silver and gold. The colour used was usually scarlet, which was the colour of life in ancient times.

The decorations were also accepted under Christian faith, although the themes and symbols changed to reflect the tenets of the religion.

The Christian Easter

On the Christian Calendar, Easter is a week-long celebration and observation, beginning with Jesus Christ’s triumphant return to Jerusalem. People spread palm branches and clothing on the road before Jesus as he entered the city, hence the name "Palm Sunday". Palm Sunday also marks the end of Lent, a 40-day period of reflection and restraint that mirror’s Christ’s own 40-day fast in the wilderness before his return to Jerusalem.

On Holy Thursday, Christian’s celebrate two of Christ’s last actions – the "Last Supper" where Christ announced that one of his disciples would betray him, and he washed the feet of his disciples.

On the following day, Jesus is captured, tried and crucified by the Romans. On this day, which is called "Good Friday" for some reason, Christians acknowledge the pain and suffering of Christ with a holy day of prayer and remembrance.

Two days later, Christ’s followers find his tomb empty. Women at the site told the disciples that God came down, and rolled the boulder that blocked the entrance to the tomb out of the way. Over the course of the next 40 days, Christ appears to many of his followers. This leads to Ascension Day, when Christ leaves the world for heaven.

Christ’s resurrection was a symbol of hope and rebirth to his followers, and a sign that all who were faithful could be reborn. As a symbol of rebirth, the practice of giving and receiving Easter eggs became a Christian tradition.

The Jewish Easter

The Jewish week of Passover occurs in either April or March, based on the variations of the Hebrew calendar. This year Passover overlaps the Christian Holiday week, beginning on Palm Sunday and ending on Easter.

While the Christian holiday celebrates the resurrection of Christ, the Jewish holiday celebrates the resurrection of the Jewish people after their escape from slavery in Egypt.

The first day of Passover begins with a fast and ends with a feast featuring all the foods that the Jewish people ate while on the run. The main food is Matzah, or unleavened bread – the Jews didn’t stop their flight long enough to give their bread a chance to rise.

The name ‘Passover’ refers to the 10 th plague that the Hebrew God unleashed on the people of Egypt for enslaving the Israelites. God went from house to house, killing the first born child in every Egyptian home, "passing over" the homes of the Israelites.

The Peter Cottontail Easter

Hares, not rabbits, were part of the annual pagan observance of Eastre, as they were sacred to the Spring-Goddess. They were an emblem of fertility, renewal and the return of spring to the land – they were also sacrificed in rituals, so go figure.

The legend goes that Eastre once turned a chicken into a rabbit to please a group of children at a spring festival, but couldn’t reverse the spell. The rabbit could change back to a chicken only once a year during the festival to lay eggs, hence the myth of the rabbit who clucks and lays eggs.

The bunny, as an Easter symbol, originated in a German folk story in the 1500s. The first edible bunnies were made of pastry and sugar in the 1800s.

German settlers in Pennsylvania brought the story and the traditions to North America. The arrival of the "Oschter Haws" was second only to the arrival of Christ-Kindel (Santa Claus) to the children, who believed that if they were good the Oschter Haws would lay coloured eggs in a nest. The nest could be a hat or bonnet, or a basket if they had one to spare.

The Easter Bunny was named Peter, after Saint Peter, one of Christ’s 12 apostles and the man Christ chose to head the first church.

The modern variation of the Easter Bunny, a.k.a. Peter Cottontail, can be traced back to American songs, stories and folklore from the early 1900s. The most famous song from this era is Here Comes Peter Cottontail by an unknown songwriter. The origins of the traditional Easter egg hunt are also a mystery.

Like many of our strange holiday traditions, Easter is thousands of years and hundreds of cultural shifts away from its true origins. Looking back, it’s easy to see that the chocolate on my face was every bit as valid as the suit and ties that my friends were forced to wear on this holiday.

The important thing to remember is that everybody – whether they are a Christian, Jew or a godless heathen with chocolate on my face – gets a day off school or work.

Or failing that, time and half for the first 11 hours at work and double time for every hour after that. If a statutory holiday falls on a non-working day for an eligible employee, the employee must be given an alternate working day off with pay. I looked it up.