Happy Easter!  Apr 9, 2023

Humans have been decorating eggs for Easter for centuries, but decorated ostrich eggs have been found from as far back as 60,000 years ago, long before the Christian festival began. The Easter egg has long been a symbol of fertility and rebirth, but exactly why people started decorating them is unclear. One theory is that, because animal products were not eaten during the religious Lenten season, people would hard-boil the eggs and decorate them with dye and wax, until they could be eaten at Easter. A more opulent type of decorated egg, Fabergé eggs, were famously created as bejeweled Easter gifts to the Russian imperial family. Our homepage image shows eggs from Lithuania, where people use traditional methods to paint patterns with wax using sharp objects or etch patterns into dyed eggs.

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