With Easter right around the corner, all patisseries are bustling with orders and cake shops are busy serving the unending appetite for the scrumptiously delicious Easter eggs. Some European countries, serve Easter Eggs for an entire year and it’s still are not enough to satisfy the hunger for these seasonal goodies.
As much as people
love indulging in a variety of Easter eggs, be it chocolate coated, candy
coated or the much-loved marzipan Easter eggs, little do we actually know about
the significance of Easter Eggs or the festival of Easter itself.
The Easter
Festival
Easter is celebrated
in the First Sunday of April every year. It is said that the Jesus Christ, the Prophet
who sacrificed his life for his people was reborn after being crucified by
those who opposed his ideologies and practices. Easter Sunday follows Good
Friday, which is a day of mourning as it symbolizes the day when the much-loved
and revered Jesus Christ was crucified despite all the good things that he had
done to serve society.
The Holy Week, the week leading to Easter is of much significance
for the Christian Community with each day leading to the beginning of a new
dawn by way of Christ’s Resurrection.
The days are:
Palm Sunday- Jesus, the Messiah rode into Jerusalem and is said to have helped guide and mentor the people.
Holy Monday- The day of cleansing the church both literally and of all social evils gripping society.
Holy Tuesday- Jesus helps discourse his disciplines from the path of evil plotting and planning.
Spy Wednesday- A disciple turns to betray Jesus and plans to capture him.
Maundy Thursday- Signifies his last supper before the crucification.
Good Friday- The day of crucification on the hill of Jerusalem.
Black Saturday- Commemorates the day that Jesus’ body lay in the coffin.
Easter Sunday- The day Jesus rises from the dead to save his people from anarchy and mayhem.
Significance of
Easter Eggs
Since Easter signifies re-birth and resurrection, the eggs are a symbol of a new-life and can also be extended to mean a new-way of life by following the path of righteousness as preached by Jesus.
The egg has also widely assumed the symbol of fertility in several countries.
The festivities are
held on a grand scale all over Europe and USA, ranging from competitions
to the biggest sales in the country. The celebrations are often at par with
those of Christmas and New Year.
The festival is not
celebrated with as much enthusiasm in India and is mostly confined to
Easter mass and brightly decorated hard boiled Easter-eggs.
Traditionally, it’s
imperative that the eggs have even a speck of the colour Red, as it symbolizes
the blood shed on the cross. However, these days we see unconventionality with
an array of hues for decoration.
With the lockdown
restrictions yet in place, the celebrations have simmered down a bit but the
joyousness in the air and the spirit of festivities remain eternal.
On deeper introspection,
the lockdown limitations and the interminable urge to get back to our exuberant
lives has brought people of all religions/races closer with festivities and merriment
out in the public domain, be it celebrating Eid with a plate of mouth-watering Biryani and a bowl of Kheer, a box of sugar-laden sweets in Diwali or the visually
appealing and enticing Easter Eggs.
Written By - Tushna Choksey
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