Northern Ireland
SPRING 2015
Egg-sentially C
ome Easter Sunday, with the long days of Lent over,
children all across the land will be tucking into chocolate Easter Eggs - according to one survey 30% of British children have a chocolate egg for breakfast on Easter Sunday. Yet Easter, in our Christian heritage, is all about the resurrection of Christ, three days after his crucifixion, a miracle that holds out the promise of redemption, resurrection and everlasting life for Christians all over the world. Where do the eggs fit in? Well, as with many festivals we know as Christian today, Easter, in fact pre-dates Christianity and has its roots in older religions. The first clue to Eater’s ancient roots lies in the fact that it does not fall on the same date every year, but rather on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox – a ‘date’ first set in our annual calendar by Julius Caesar back in
45BC to mark the beginning of Spring and, whether you look at Easter in the traditional Christian ethos or from a wider religious perspective, this celebration is all about rebirth – the earth, and all its inhabitants – ‘springing’ back to life after the long, dark winter. The word ‘Easter’ is said to be derived from ‘Eostre’ (the spelling of which changes depending on the source) an Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring who symbolised the rebirth of the day at dawn and the rebirth of life in spring. Eostre’s festival was celebrated at the vernal equinox and eggs, probably the food most associated with Easter, were important symbolically as they were associated with new life, rebirth and fertility. In pre-Christian mythology, the egg hatching to life symbolised the re-birth of the earth during springtime and was an important symbol for
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