Easter egg Wikipedia. This article is about special eggs painted around Easter. For a secret message hidden in media, see Easter egg media. Locally sourced ingredients of the freshest kind come together to make the menus of Red Dunn Kitchen outstanding in every way. Dine in or take out. Red Beet Eggs' title='Red Beet Eggs' />Beets are most commonly a dark red color, and often a divisive ingredient amongst vegetable eaters. Learn more at PBS Food. On a bed of fresh cooked kalecooked shrimp I like to boil. Fav dressing of mine is the mayo. Allow two days for the hard boiled eggs, chopped onion and canned beets to marinate in a cooked brine of vinegar, sugar, bay leaf and cloves. Elegant and rich, this supermoist pillow of chocolate cake gets its color and texture from the vibrantred, naturally sweet beet. Theres. Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs,1 are decoratedeggs that are usually used as gifts on the occasion of Easter or springtime celebration. Wheat Berries Cooking there. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide Easter season. The oldest tradition is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs wrapped in colourful foil, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as chocolate. Although eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility and rebirth,2 in Christianity, for the celebration of Eastertide, Easter eggs symbolize the empty tomb of Jesus, from which Jesus resurrected. In addition, one ancient tradition was the staining of Easter eggs with the colour red in memory of the blood of Christ, shed as at that time of his crucifixion. This custom of the Easter egg can be traced to early Christians of Mesopotamia, and from there it spread into Russia and Siberia through the Orthodox Churches, and later into Europe through the Catholic and Protestant Churches. This Christian use of eggs may have been influenced by practices in pre dynastic period in Egypt, as well as amid the early cultures of Mesopotamia and Crete. Historyedit. A decorated ostrich egg with Punic artwork. The practice of decorating eggshells as part of spring rituals is ancient,1. RedBeetPouch.gif' alt='Red Beet Eggs' title='Red Beet Eggs' />Africa which are 6. In the pre dynastic period of Egypt and the early cultures of Mesopotamia and Crete, eggs were associated with death and rebirth, as well as with kingship, with decorated ostrich eggs, and representations of ostrich eggs in gold and silver, were commonly placed in graves of the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians as early as 5,0. These cultural relationships may have influenced early Christian and Islamic cultures in those areas, as well as through mercantile, religious, and political links from those areas around the Mediterranean. Red coloured Easter egg with Christian cross, from the Saint Kosmas Aitolos Greek Orthodox Monastery. The Christian custom of Easter eggs, specifically, started among the early Christians of Mesopotamia, who stained eggs with red colouring in memory of the blood of Christ, shed at His crucifixion. The Christian Church officially adopted the custom, regarding the eggs as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus, with the Roman Ritual, the first edition of which was published in 1. Easter Blessings of Food, one for eggs, along with those for lamb, bread, and new produce. The blessing is for consumption as a food, rather than decorated. Lord, let the grace of your blessing come upon these eggs, that they be healthful food for your faithful who eat them in thanksgiving for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever. Sociology professor Kenneth Thompson discusses the spread of the Easter egg throughout Christendom, writing that use of eggs at Easter seems to have come from Persia into the Greek Christian Churches of Mesopotamia, thence to Russia and Siberia through the medium of Orthodox Christianity. From the Greek Church the custom was adopted by either the Roman Catholics or the Protestants and then spread through Europe. Both Thompson, as well as British orientalist Thomas Hyde state that in addition to dying the eggs red, the early Christians of Mesopotamia also stained Easter eggs green and yellow. Influential 1. Jacob Grimm speculates, in the second volume of his Deutsche Mythologie, that the folk custom of Easter eggs among the continental Germanic peoples may have stemmed from springtime festivities of a Germanic goddess known in Old English as ostre namesake of modern English Easter and possibly known in Old High German as Ostara and thus namesake of Modern German Ostern Easter The heathen Easter had much in common with May feast and the reception of spring, particularly in matter of bonfires. Then, through long ages there seem to have lingered among the people Easter games so called, which the church itself had to tolerate  I allude especially to the custom of Easter eggs, and to the Easter tale which preachers told from the pulpit for the peoples amusement, connecting it with Christian reminiscences. Although the Christian tradition is to use dyed or painted chicken eggs, a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with candy such as jelly beans. These eggs can be hidden for children to find on Easter morning, which may be left by the Easter Bunny. They may also be put in a basket filled with real or artificial straw to resemble a birds nest. Decoration and symbolismedit. Blessing of Easter foods in Poland. Lenten traditioneditThe Easter egg tradition may also have merged into the celebration of the end of the privations of Lent in the West. Historically, it was traditional to use up all of the households eggs before Lent began. Eggs were originally forbidden during Lent as well as on other traditional fast days in Western Christianity this tradition still continues among the Eastern Christian Churches. Likewise, in Eastern Christianity, meat, eggs, and dairy are all prohibited during the Lenten fast. This established the tradition of Pancake Day being celebrated on Shrove Tuesday. This day, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday when Lent begins, is also known as Mardi Gras, a French phrase which translates as Fat Tuesday to mark the last consumption of eggs and dairy before Lent begins. In the Orthodox Church, Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, rather than Wednesday, so the households dairy products would be used up in the preceding week, called Cheesefare Week. During Lent, since chickens would not stop producing eggs during this time, a larger than usual store might be available at the end of the fast. This surplus, if any, had to be eaten quickly to prevent spoiling. Then, with the coming of Easter, the eating of eggs resumes. Some families cook a special meatloaf with eggs in it to be eaten with the Easter dinner. One would have been forced to hard boil the eggs that the chickens produced so as not to waste food, and for this reason the Spanish dish hornazo traditionally eaten on and around Easter contains hard boiled eggs as a primary ingredient. In Hungary, eggs are used sliced in potato casseroles around the Easter period. Symbolism and related customseditSome Christians symbolically link the cracking open of Easter eggs with the empty tomb of Jesus. In the Orthodox churches, Easter eggs are blessed by the priest at the end of the Paschal Vigil which is equivalent to Holy Saturday, and distributed to the faithful. The egg is seen by followers of Christianity as a symbol of resurrection while being dormant it contains a new life sealed within it. Similarly, in the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, the so called wiconka, i. Easter eggs and other symbolic foods, is one of the most enduring and beloved Polish traditions on Holy Saturday. During Paschaltide, in some traditions the Pascal greeting with the Easter egg is even extended to the deceased. On either the second Monday or Tuesday of Pascha, after a memorial service people bring blessed eggs to the cemetery and bring the joyous paschal greeting, Christ has risen, to their beloved departed see Radonitza. In Greece, women traditionally dye the eggs with onion skins and vinegar on Thursday also the day of Communion. These ceremonial eggs are known as kokkina avga. They also bake tsoureki for the Easter Sunday feast. Red Easter eggs are sometimes served along the centerline of tsoureki braided loaf of bread. In Egypt, its a tradition to decorate boiled eggs during Sham el Nessim holiday, which falls every year after the Eastern Christian.