Easter Trivia and Easter Egg Trivia

Jump up and down folks. I have got the next couple of days off! Something called Easter apparently? I have already lodged my 'suggestions' with my nearest and dearest as to which chocolate eggs they should be buying me. And so I have high hopes of putting on several pounds in weight and smearing copious amounts of the finest confectionary around my mush. I trust you will be joining me? Even if you are on a diet you really should you know. Easter comes but once a year, and the Easter Bunny will be terribly upset if you don't enter into the spirit of the occasion. Anyhow, to further celebrate my attempts to become a porker, here are some interesting trivia and facts about Easter that you really should know.

Pig out on the chocolate eggs people. You ARE worth it.

1/ Decorating and colouring eggs for Easter was the custom in England during the middle ages. The household accounts of Edward I, for the year 1290, recorded an expenditure of eighteen pence for four hundred and fifty eggs to be gold-leafed and coloured for Easter gifts.

2/ The most famous decorated Easter eggs were those made by the well-known goldsmith, Peter Carl Faberge. In 1883 the Russian Czar, Alexander, commissioned Faberge to make a special Easter gift for his wife, the Empress Marie.

The first Faberge egg was an egg within an egg. It had an outside shell of platinum and enameled white which opened to reveal a smaller gold egg. The smaller egg, in turn, opened to display a golden chicken and a jeweled replica of the Imperial crown.

This special Faberge egg so delighted the Czarina that the Czar promptly ordered the Faberge firm to design further eggs to be delivered every Easter. In later years Nicholas II, Alexander's son, continued the custom. Fifty-seven eggs were made in all.

3/ In 1878 President Hayes and his wife Lucy officially opened the White House grounds to the children of the area for egg rolling on Easter Monday. The event has been held on the South Lawn ever since, except during World War I and World War II. During the war years the Easter Egg Roll was held at the National Zoo, and other Washington locations.

4/ The white lily, the symbol of the resurrection, is the special Easter flower.

5/ The name Easter comes from Eostre, an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honour.

6/ The word paschal comes from a Latin word that means belonging to Passover or to Easter. Formerly, Easter and the Passover were closely associated. The resurrection of Jesus took place during the Passover. Christians of the Eastern church initially celebrated both holidays together. But the Passover can fall on any day of the week, and Christians of the Western church preferred to celebrate Easter on Sunday, the day of the resurrection.