Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1898 — Origin of Coloring Easter Eggs. [ARTICLE]

Origin of Coloring Easter Eggs.

In all oriental mythology the egg is the symbol of life, the mysterious appearance of a living creature from the apparently inert matter contained within the shell being so unexplainnble, on any principle of science, that the Hindoos regard the hatching of every egg as a direct interposition of divine power. In the early days of Christianity a great many Pagan superstitions were engrafted on the new system. The Saturnalia of Rome became the Christinas midwinter Festival. The spring holidays of the gods of the wood and the field were transformed into EastThe sending of eggs, as presents in the spring, was a common practice long before the time of Christ among both the Persians, the Hindoos, the Egyptians and the Jews, the.egg being regarded as emblematic of the resurrection of nature from a state of apparent death. Many, if not most, of the early Christians were Jews and retained the practice, coloring the eggs red in allusion to the crucifixion.