Hi everyone, My Human tells me that Easter eggs mean chocolate to many Humans, but that is a relatively recent interpretation of an Easter custom.
Easter represents the rebirth of Jesus. It is thought that the stone used blocked the entrance to Jesus’s tomb was in the shape of an egg which is one theory why eggs are linked to Easter. As part of the celebrations of Jesus’s sacrifices, faith, good works and charity, a period of fasting, known as lent starts 40 days before Easter. Shrove Tuesday is the last feast before lent and Pancakes have become a traditional way of using up the eggs before giving up for lent. Hence Shrove Tuesday being knows as Pancake day.
I did read one thing about giving up eggs, which is quite funny, it is that the chickens do not know that the eggs are not eaten and keep producing. Which of course they would, to them eggs are for reproduction not eating, so This leads to a large quantity of eggs building up. To use up this large quantity of eggs, they were decorated and given in baskets as a celebration of the fast being over.
Traditionally eggs were dyed with natural dies such as red onion peel and beetroot, but over the years, they got more and more elaborate and each country developed its own decoration and customs for the Easter egg.
In the early 1800’s chocolate Easter eggs appeared in France and Germany, but because chocolate was in its early years, it was not as we know it now, it was bitter and hard and until they developed ways of making hollow chocolate eggs, they were solid chocolate. The first hollow chocolate eggs were expensive as they were time consuming having to be made one at a time, lining a mould with chocolate paste. Popularity only grew as the chocolate became better, with the development of the cocoa processing techniques.
Frys chocolate were the first to produce an Easter egg in Britain in 1873 and a couple of years later, in 1875, Cadbury followed suit, and by 1905 Cadbury had developed their Milk chocolate, and the popularity of this chocolate increased their status in the chocolate market and established them as leaders in the Easter egg market.
Well, who knew eggs were so interesting?
To finish off with a fun fact, have you ever heard the saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”? Well, it means if you do, put all your eggs in one basket that is, and you drop it, you lose everything, but spread them out into several different baskets and drop one and you still have the others. So “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”!
Egg Collecting
Due to the timing of this issue with Easter, My Human thought it would be good to investigate the issues caused by Egg collecting. But what is egg collecting? There are hundreds of different species of birds whose eggs have different patterns, colours and sizes, which made them unique. Egg collecting is collecting eggs much like you might collect rubbers or keyrings but which every way you look at it, It is stealing birds’ eggs from their nest.
In the 1920’s commercial air travel became open to more of the British population and people began to travel to other countries. With air tourism, on the increase, so did the souvenirs being brought back. For some unexplained reason, egg collecting became common, and I couldn’t find a definitive reason, and my Human can only assume it was because they were small and light and didn’t take up much room in the luggage. Wow, Luggage was a whole new concept to me, you Humans, take so much stuff with you when you travel.
Anyway back on topic, Eggs collectors’ would obtain eggs from other countries on their travels, and once back home they can use these acquired eggs to exchange with other collectors for eggs they need to complete their collection.
In order to make them safe to store or travel, collected eggs have a hole put in them each end and the contents are blown out making them hollow, but more importantly the shell is intact and there are no insides to go off.
Most collectors are after the raptor type birds such as Eagles, Hawks, and Falcons. These eggs are usually laid high up in a tree and are difficult to reach, so are rare to get in a collection. The reason why egg collecting was banned was because some of the rarer birds may only lay 1 or 2 eggs per year, and if they are stolen, this reduces the number of chicks born each year and population numbers decline.
Today Police Forces take all wildlife crime very seriously and have dedicated units to police it. With the help of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) the Police continue to investigate and prosecute any person in the interest of protecting all wild birds, their eggs, nests and chicks.
Scans of the article as seen in the magazine
