Easter Eggs~I Learned Something Today!

I enjoy that a lot of our religious celebrations also are accompanied by cultural traditions that are fun for families and people everywhere.  Which one among us would not like to get a chocolate bunny for Easter no matter our age?  

I like occasions that unify us as a people, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, etc. There are far too many things that divide us as Americans. The speaker in church stated today that he had looked up Easter eggs and then he said something I cannot ever remember hearing before.  I may be showing my ignorance here!  Or have I known it before and dismissed or forgotten it?  Who can know for sure with the hard drive of my brain getting more full day by day?  

Anyway his talk prompted me to look Easter Eggs up on Wikipedia.  Sure enough his words were a direct quote from the Wiki.  

"Easter Eggs, also called Pascal Eggs, are decorated eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime.  As such, Easter Eggs are common during the season of Easter.  The oldest tradition is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionary such as jelly beans. Eggs were a traditional symbol of fertility, and rebirth in Christianity. 

For the celebration of Eastertide, Easter Eggs symbolize the empty tomb of Jesus.  The Easter Egg, for Christians, is a reminder that Jesus rose from the grave, and that those who will also experience eternal life."

The part I didn't know was the underlined part of the above paragraph.  Easter Eggs symbolize the empty tomb of Jesus.  I never could really grasp that from the way Easter eggs were done in our childhood.  

But I think it is perfect for the way modern customs have provided us with the plastic eggs that open.  We normally put little treats inside, right?  There has got to be a clever little way to have kids find some eggs that are empty and that is the surprise inside. (So they don't burst into tears explain first perhaps? Like something far better awaits when you find an empty one?) Then following up with something about the resurrection for the little ones and a really special treat.  For what it is worth, it just made me think of a way we could incorporate a teaching moment along with an Easter Egg Hunt for our little ones.  

In keeping with my new resolve to post more often and reprise older posts here is one from 2011.

Easter Eggs

Wouldn't it be fun if you could save eggs your kids decorate when they are little that aren't hand blown and so fragile? Wouldn't it be neater if your little kids could even hold and decorate a blown out egg without cracking it?

Once while decorating eggs with my friend, Lee, I discovered that you can. Did you know that you can hard boil and decorate eggs that will last forever a long long time? If they don't have any cracks they will be just fine for years to come. I always thought they would start smelling rotten, but nope. All that happens is that the egg inside dehydrates and shrinks and they are like a little rattle over time. Think plastic egg with a small chocolate egg in it. The first few years I would leave them out but hidden for a few months to make sure they were not rotten before storing them away. I have never had a problem and neither has Lee and she still has some that her mother painted for her when she was a little girl. Try it, it is eggciting.

The eggs that you see with the patterns on them are done with hard boiled eggs and spring tissue papers. You just tear some pieces dip them in liquid starch and press them on the egg and dry. Our daughter, Jen, taught me this little trick ten years ago when we were in Scotland she made them for Piper's first Easter. I fell in love with them but they were the blown eggs so would not transport easily. Finally I just made some of my own. Again, my kinda thing. They really are pretty cute for the effort that goes into them.

Well, I hate to put all my eggs in one basket but this is probably the only crafting post you will ever see from this chick!