Easter egg: Difference between revisions

The practice of [[wikipedia:Egg decorating|decorating eggshells]] is quite ancient,<ref name="pre-Christian">{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=S5BZAAAAYAAJ&q=decorating+eggs+pre-Christian|title= Wycinanki and pysanky: forms of religious and ethnic folk art from the Delaware Valley|publisher= University of Pittsburgh|author= Neil R. Grobman|quote=During the spring cycle of festivals, ancient pre-Christian peoples used decorated eggs to welcome the sun and to help ensure the fertility of the fields, river ...|year=1981|access-date =18 April 2014}}</ref> with decorated, engraved [[wikipedia:ostrich egg|ostrich egg]]s found in Africa which are 60,000 years old.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/egg-cetera-6-hunting-for-the-world%E2%80%99s-oldest-decorated-eggs |title=Egg Cetera #6: Hunting for the world's oldest decorated eggs &#124; University of Cambridge |publisher=Cam.ac.uk |date=2012-04-10 |access-date=2013-03-31}}</ref> In the [[wikipedia:Prehistoric Egypt|pre-dynastic period]] of [[wikipedia:Egypt|Egypt]] and the early cultures of [[wikipedia:Mesopotamia|Mesopotamia]] and [[wikipedia:Crete|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 5,000 years ago.<ref>Treasures from Royal Tombs of Ur By Richard L. Zettler, Lee Horne, Donald P. Hansen, Holly Pittman 1998 pgs 70-72</ref> 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.<ref name=Green>{{cite journal|last=Green|first=Nile|journal=Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean|volume=18|issue=1|year=2006|title=Ostrich Eggs and Peacock feathers: Sacred Objects as Cultural Exchange between Christianity and Islam|quote=This article uses the wide dispersal of ostrich eggs and peacock feathers among the different cultural contexts of the Mediterranean – and beyond into the Indian Ocean world – to explore the nature and limits of cultural inheritance and exchange between Christianity and Islam. These avian materials previously possessed symbolic meaning and material value as early as the pre-dynastic period in Egypt, as well as amid the early cultures of Mesopotamia and Crete. The main early cultural associations of the eggs and feathers were with death/resurrection and kingship respectively, a symbolism that was passed on into early Christian and Muslim usage. Mercantile, religious and political links across the premodern Mediterranean meant that these items found parallel employment all around the Mediterranean littoral, and beyond it, in Arabia, South Asia and Africa.}}</ref>

According to many sources, the Christian custom of Easter eggs was adopted from Persian tradition into the [[wikipedia:early Christians|early Christians]] of [[wikipedia:Mesopotamia|Mesopotamia]], who stained them with red colouring "in memory of the blood of Christ, shed at His [[wikipedia:Crucifixion of Jesus|crucifixion]]".<ref name="Thompson2013"/><ref name="Williams2016">{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Victoria |title=Celebrating Life Customs around the World|date=21 November 2016|publisher=[[wikipedia:ABC-CLIO|ABC-CLIO]]|language=en |isbn=9781440836596|page=2|quote=The history of the Easter egg can be traced back to the time of the advent of Christianity in Mesopotamia (around the first to the third century), when people use to stain eggs red as a reminder of the blood spilled by Christ during the Crucifixion. In time, the Christian church in general adopted this custom with the eggs considered to be a symbol of both Christ's death and Resurrection. Moreover, in the earliest days of Christianity Easter eggs were considered symbolic of the tomb in which Jesus's corpse was laid after the Crucifixion for eggs, as a near universal symbol of fertility and life, were like Jesus's tomb, something from which new life came forth.}}</ref><ref name="Ellis1877"/><ref name=History>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TinZAAAAMAAJ&q=easter+egg+Christians+Mesopotamia&pg=PA558|title= Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 5|publisher=T.B. Noonan|quote=The early Christians of Mesopotamia had the custom of dyeing and decorating eggs at Easter. They were stained red, in memory of the blood of Christ, shed at His crucifixion. The Church adopted the custom, and regarded the eggs as the emblem of the resurrection, as is evinced by the benediction of Pope Paul V., about 1610, which reads thus: "Bless, O Lord! we beseech thee, this thy creature of eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance to thy faithful servants, eating it in thankfulness to thee on account of the resurrection of the Lord." Thus the custom has come down from ages lost in antiquity.)|year=1881|access-date =7 April 2012}}</ref><ref name=Itihaas>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=CRvzTM0kev4C&q=In+many+countries+the+name+of+the+Christian+feast+we+call+Easter&pg=PA96|title= Welcome to the Church Year: An Introduction to the Seasons of the Episcopal Church|author=Vicki K. Black|publisher= Church Publishing, Inc.|quote=The Christians of this region in Mesopotamia were probably the first to connect the decorating of eggs with the feast of the resurrection of Christ, and by the Middle Ages this practice was so widespread that in some places Easter Day was called Egg Sunday. In parts of Europe, the eggs were dyed red and were then cracked together when people exchanged Easter greetings. Many congregations today continue to have Easter egg hunts for the children after services on Easter Day.|date= 1 Jul 2004|isbn= 9780819219664}}</ref>  The [[wikipedia:Christian Church|Christian Church]] officially adopted the custom, regarding the eggs as a symbol of the [[wikipedia:resurrection of Jesus|resurrection of Jesus]], with the [[wikipedia:Roman Ritual|Roman Ritual]], the first edition of which was published in 1610 but which has texts of much older date, containing among the Easter Blessings of Food, one for eggs, along with those for lamb, bread, and new produce.<ref name=History/><ref name="Itihaas" /> {{quotation|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.<ref>[http://www.ewtn.com/library/prayer/roman2.txt The Roman Ritual. Part XI, Blessings and other sacramentals]</ref>|author=|title=|source=}}