Easter
Easter Eggs and the best Easter ever 2010!
We know how to have the best Easter ever!
From Montezuma's delicious 'free-range' eggs to Green & Black's collection to beautiful mini eggs from Divine and Allergycare.
There are also a few bunnies available from Montezuma and Plush.
Something for every palate, whether you're looking for Gluten Free,Organic or simply want some Fair Trade.
All are delicious and a full list is available here.
Easter Egg Hunt and Colouring Competition 2010
We are running an Easter egg hunt this year – yes, it is aimed at the kids, but we're kind here so we've decided to let anyone of any age enter!
All you have to do is play 'spot the Easter egg' in our Broughton Street store and fill in a quick tiebreaker question. The winner gets a prize egg!
Alternatively, at our Tollcross store we're running a colouring competition for the kids after last year's success.
How Long Have we Been Giving Eggs at Easter?
In the UK and Europe, the earliest Easter eggs were painted and decorated hen, duck or goose eggs, a practice still carried on in many parts of the world today.
As time went by, artificial eggs were made and by the end of the 17th century, manufactured eggs made of various materials were available for purchase at Easter, for giving as Easter gifts and presents.
The first chocolate Easter eggs appeared in Germany and France in around the 1800s and soon spread to the rest of Europe and beyond.
The first chocolate eggs were solid and they were soon followed by hollow eggs. Making hollow eggs at that time was no mean feat, because the easily worked chocolate we use today didn't exist then, they had to use a crude paste made from ground roasted Cacao beans.
By the turn of the 19th Century, the discovery of the modern chocolate making process and improved mass manufacturing methods meant that the hollow, moulded Chocolate Easter Egg was fast becoming the Easter gift of choice in the UK and many parts of Europe, and by the 1960's it was well established worldwide.
Why Does Easter Move Around the Calendar?
The date that Easter falls on every year is governed by a fairly complex calculation related to the Spring Equinox.
The formula is:
The first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox is Easter Sunday or Easter Day.
This formula was set by Egyptian astronomers in Alexandria in 235ad, and was calculated using the same method as the Jews have traditionally used to calculate the feast of the Passover, which occurred at about the same time as the death of Christ.
How did Eggs Become Linked to Easter?
When the Saxons came to Britain in about the 5th century AD, the spring festival Eostre came with them, along with re-birth and fertility rituals involving eggs, chicks and rabbits.
The Saxons converted to Christianity and started to celebrate the death and the resurrection of Christ which coincided with Eostre, so that's what the early church in Britain called the celebration, Eostre or Easter in modern English.
The egg, representing fertility and re-birth in pagan times, was also adopted as part of the Christian Easter festival and it came to represent the 'resurrection' or re-birth of Christ after the crucifixion, Some Christians believe it is a symbol of the stone blocking the Sepulchre being 'rolled' away.