It is said that people in the Western World eat six millions eggs per hour just on Easter Saturday and only in Sweden 4000 tonnes of eggs are eaten during Easter week. We hope none of you is suffering from “egg hangover” today, if there is such a thing? But why do we eat such large quantities of eggs during Easter? You could say that there are two reasons..

Eating eggs during Easter is a tradition in most Western countries. This is because in Christianity, the egg is a symbol of life and of Jesus' resurrection on Easter day. The reason why Easter has become a big egg holiday is partly because it was forbidden to eat eggs during the forty-day-long Lent before Easter and partly because the days began to get lighter again. The lighter days were a signal to the hens that it was time to start laying eggs again after the winter darkness. As eggs were not eaten during Lent, there was therefore an excess of eggs fwhen Lent was over, for Easter. This meant that for Easter, you could really indulge in eggs and this was an enormous luxury back in the day. "No eggs for Lent, as many as you can eat for Easter" was the motto. This tradition evolved over time, with the introduction of chocolate eggs and other egg-shaped treats that we are used to seeing today.

In the Middle Ages, people carried baskets of decorated eggs to the church to have them blessed by the priest. Colouring was a way to mark the eggs' significant importance. Painted eggs were given as gifts to loved ones and other significant individuals. Later in history, artificial eggs made of glass and porcelain became popular. Today, it is usually a paper egg filled with candy that we give away, but the tradition of decorating boiled eggs by painting them still lives on as a craft that is suitable for both adults and children. 

And on that note we hope you all are having the most wonderful Easter weekend. May it be filled with many, many Easter eggs.