Easter & Passover
Candy Traditions
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Easter
--The first symbol of Easter was a chicken breaking out of its shell (Christ's Resurrection).
--Many pagan traditions have found their way into Christian religious observances. Rabbits are one such
symbol. Rabbits symbolize the fertility of Springtime. The rabbit is also the Symbol of the Egyptian moon
- and the moon is used to determine the date of Easter each year.
--The hare (rabbit) is a very important Easter symbol in Germany, almost as important as Santa Claus is
in the United States for Christmas. The hare is responsible for laying eggs and hiding them. This
probably evolved from children hunting for Easter eggs and scaring away rabbits which happened to be in
the area. The hare and egg provide a link between the pagan faith's welcoming of Spring and
Christianity's Easter celebration.
The custom of decorating eggs goes back many thousands of years. When you add a few strokes of
icing to the surface of a chocolate Easter egg, you are carrying on an age-old tradition. Long before the
Bible was written, the egg was a sacred object and it was ornamented as part of numerous religious and
superstitious practices.
Very probably, most of our own ancestors regarded the egg as a sacred symbol. Numerous races and
many religions and creeds venerated the egg. In its name were conducted a great number and variety of
sacred and mystic rites.
The life hidden within the shell of the egg is mysterious and unknown. Who knows whether the creature
that emerges will be good or bad? Therefore, great hopes and prayers are associated with the unborn
life that is yet unseen but lies asleep within the egg.
Among ancient Egyptians, the original or world egg is the joint production of the god "Geb," whose body is
the earth and of the goddess "Nut," the sky. From this first egg was born the "Bennyu" bird of Phoenin,
the sun symbol.
Another ancient Egyptian religious system called the chief god "Ptah.” Drawings found by archaeologists
show Ptah seated on a throne, before a potter's wheel, fashioning a golden egg -the beginning of life. In
Hindu mythology, the first, or world egg was described as formed in the waters of chaos before the
beginning of both the universe and time. Another branch of ancient Hindu belief pictured the original egg
as being laid by their divinity, Hamsa.
Phoenicians believed that the first egg was formed in Mot, the original, or primeval waters.
In the Finnish epic, "The Kalevala" their greatest god, "Ukko," formed the earth, sky, sun, moon and
clouds from the broken eggs of a teal.
In keeping with almost all ancient beliefs, the Persians accepted that the world was hatched from an egg
on the first day of Spring. Their New Year's festival was celebrated at a time corresponding to Easter.
Upon this joyous occasion they had a unique custom - they exchanged dyed eggs as good luck charms.
The practice spread throughout the world. Today, children look for colored eggs in the Easter basket.
The egg had always intrigued, worried and fascinated people. For instance, in antiquity, the Romans
used to break the shells of eggs that they had eaten to prevent enemies from making magic with them. It
was believed that evil Romans could cast curses by remote control with discarded empty uncrushed egg
shells.
For Christians, Easter is the feast of beginnings, of the emergence of life from darkness and death. It has
been said that St. Augustine as the first Christian authority who associated the egg with the beginning.
He compared the egg with the virtue of hope and in particular, with the hope of eternal life, because the
egg, like hope, is that which has not come to fruition. However, early Christian Chaldeans, Syrians and
Greeks faithfully presented each other with crimson eggs in honor of the blood of Christ.
Slavs design beautiful eggs richly ornamented with gold or silver. The poles and Ukrainians call their
decorated eggs, "Krasaani" (meaning beauties). Whereas we may use icing) these people often use
bees' wax for name writing purposes. when so decorated with bees' wax) the eggs are called, "Pysanki"
(written).
Artists vie with each other to produce beautiful and original creations on the surface of egg shells in
Austria. These works of religious art are then set into magnificent receptacles with tiny plants and ferns,
as we do with Easter baskets and shredded "grass."
All the Balkan and Eastern European countries employ elaborately painted symbols on their eggs, the
most frequently used design being the cross.
In France, children carry eggs to their churches on Holy Saturday at their first confessions for the priests'
blessings. Other children hunt for eggs in the church garden, for it is said the eggs had been dropped by
the church bells that were silent from Maundy Thursday.
Although there are no records of Easter eggs as a general custom in Western Europe before the 15th
Century, there is a tribe in Africa that color eggs at Easter. They are Mohammedan now, but were once
Christians hundreds of years ago. It is also recorded, in the year 1307, King Edward I of England had 450
boiled eggs dyed and covered with gold leaf.
It had been suggested that the many customs associated with Easter eggs developed in Europe because
of the Crusaders. They are believed to have brought the idea back with them from the East.
Thus, we see that the egg has had special meaning and has been revered by humankind for thousands
of years as a symbol of life, birth and hope.
The word, “Easter” is derived from Eostre or Ostara - the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn. The festival
in her honor was celebrated on the first day of Spring. I t was she who changed a bird into a rabbit and
thus this four-footed little creature joined the egg as another Easter symbol. In our Easter baskets we
always include delightfully decorated eggs and rabbits. At the beginning of the 19th Century, the first
sugar and pastry Easter bunnies became popular in southern Germany.
Although in North America the religious significance of the egg has almost disappeared, its position has
remained as one of the principal symbols of Easter. Children roll them on the white House lawn. Almost
every candy, food, drug and chain store throughout the length and breadth of the country sells Easter
Eggs and rabbits. Usually, they are made of hollow chocolate, but may as well be chocolate covered
marshmallow or cream filled nut and fruit. Many are solid chocolate.
Naturally, when the chocolate novelty is decorated with pleasingly colored icing and attractively designed
special icing flowers and other sugar candy ornaments, the effect is a delight to behold.
Passover
Like Easter, Passover is celebrated in the Spring. The Seder, the traditional meal celebrated in Jewish
homes on the first day of Passover, includes the eating of hard-boiled eggs as a symbol of the hope and
joy that things are to grow again. It is likely that Jesus' Last Supper, was a Passover meal.
Easter, in Latin and Greek is “Pasha,” the Hebrew translation of that word is Pesach,” the Hebrew word for
Passover. Since the egg is so closely associated with Easter, expressions like “Paste egg,” or “Pasch
egg,” evolved - all of which are modernized versions of the Latin equivalent of the Hebrew word for
Passover.
While candy and confections are not identified with the Jewish celebration of Passover the way they are
with Easter, many Seders are ended with the eating of chocolate products that are "Kosher la pesach" -
Kosher for Passover. No corn syrup or lecithin can be used in the preparation of this chocolate that can
be either dark, or light - Kosher dairy. Passover confections include chocolate bars with nuts, raisins and
dried fruit. Recently, matzo bread (an unleavened flatbread) dipped or half-dipped in chocolate, has
become a popular product.
Reprinted from Retail Confectioners International, Kettle Talk, March 1999.