The true origin of Chocolate Easter Egg Gifts

Before diving into your favourite chocolate Easter Egg have you ever taken a moment to wonder where Easter Eggs actually originate from? And no, I'm not talking about your nearest supermarket selling a mass production of chocolate Easter gifts but rather the origin of Easter and why we give Easter Eggs as gifts to one another?

Where do the origins of Easter truly lie?

Easter is commonly believed to be a Christian festival where the death of Jesus is remembered and His resurrection is celebrated, however delve a bit deeper into the history of Easter and we discover an earlier association with pagan rituals and the pagan rights of spring. The name Easter comes from a pagan figure called Eastre (or Eostre) who was celebrated as the goddess of spring by the Saxons of Northern Europe. A festival called Eastre was held during the spring equinox by the Saxons to honour her. The goddess Eastre's earthly symbol was the rabbit, which was also known as a symbol of fertility.

When the Saxons came to Britain in the 5th century they brought this Eastre festival which included re-birth and fertility rituals involving eggs, chicks and rabbits with them. Christianity gradually replaced the indigenous religion of the English Saxons around the 7th and 8th centuries and the Saxons began celebrating the death and the resurrection of Jesus. The death and resurrection took place at the feast of Passover in the Jewish calendar which coincided with Eostre, so that's what the early church in Britain called the celebration, Eostre or Easter in modern English.

As well as adopting the pagan festival of Eostre, the Egg, representing fertility and re-birth in pagan times, was also adopted as part of the early Christian Easter festival and it came to represent the 'resurrection' or re-birth of Jesus after His death on the cross. In the UK and Europe, the earliest Easter eggs were painted and decorated, a practice still carried on in many parts of the world today. As time passed by, the first chocolate Easter eggs appeared in Germany and France in the early 1800's and soon spread to the rest of Europe. The first chocolate eggs were solid and they were soon followed by hollow eggs. By the 20th Century, the moulded Chocolate Easter Egg was fast becoming the Easter gift of choice in the UK and many parts of Europe, and by the 1960's it was well established worldwide.

Today you can find almost any Easter Egg of your choice, from the first mass-produced chocolate Easter Egg manufacturer Cadbury to your favourite organic Easter Egg chocolate gifts. So no matter what your chocolate Easter Egg preference or beliefs of the origins of Easter are, we can all agree that Easter is a time to celebrate and enjoy the festivities that surround this weekend.