Sunday, April 16, 2006

The third Easter egg hunt of the season


Here are the kids on their third Easter egg hunt of the season: their first was at the church Easter retreat, followed by one at Anna's birthday party, and topped off with the Easter Sunday version at Fedora's dad's church in the city.

I've always wondered about the origins of the Easter eggs, as well as the association of Easter with the bunny (after all, bunnies don't lay eggs: they're mammals!).

Anyway, the Internet consensus seems to be that both the egg and the bunny are symbols of fertility and birth. If true, eggs represent the same thing at both the Easter egg hunt (or exchange, as it might have been in earlier days) and the traditional Chinese red egg and ginger party. (In fact, some Greeks celebrate Easter with dyed red eggs.)

One fascinating theory for why the egg is associated with the bunny is cataloged on Wikipedia. The theory is that German Protestants wanted to retain the Catholic tradition of eating colored eggs for Easter but did not want their kids fasting at Lent, which they figured to be a Catholic tradition.

Anyway, Easter egg hunt or not, happy Easter to one and all! He has risen. (Mark 16:1-19Posted by Picasa

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