![\"History](\"https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2015\/04\/History-of-Easter-Eggs-350x350.png\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nSpring is here and stores are decorated for Easter, offering pastel colored Easter items of every description. But where did Easter come from? Where did we get these traditions? Almost every culture has some celebration or festival for spring. Judaism has <\/span>Passover or <\/span>Pesach<\/span>, Islam has <\/span>Nowruz<\/span>, <\/span>Christianity<\/span> has Easter. The ancient Romans celebrated spring and pagans, ancient and modern, have lots of spring festivals. These are the origin of many of our current traditions.<\/span><\/p>\n First, the name Easter is possibly de<\/span>rived from Ishtar, the Babylonian and Assyrian goddess of fertility or from <\/span>Eostre<\/span>, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. Strangely, in many foreign languages, the name for the Easter holiday is \u201cPassover\u201d transliterated into the local dialect. For example, t<\/span>he Spanish is <\/span>\u201cPascua de <\/span>flores<\/span>\u201d<\/span> or \u201cPassover of flowers\u201d to differentiate it from the Jewish <\/span>Pascua<\/span>, Russian is <\/span>\u201c<\/span>\u043f\u0430\u0441\u0445\u0430\u043b\u044c\u043d\u044b\u0439<\/span>\u201d (<\/span>paskhal’nyy<\/span>), <\/span>and Icelandic is<\/span> \u201c<\/span>p\u00e1skar<\/span>.\u201d Christians celebrate Resurrection Sunday, the day Jesus rose from the grave after his cr<\/span>ucifixion. But even church leaders have not agreed on how the date of Easter will be calculated. The Council of <\/span>Nicea<\/span> (A.D. 325) said that Easter would be celebrated on the Sunday following the full moon, making it a moveable feast in our solar-based calen<\/span>dar. But in America, many people celebrate Easter whether they go to church or not.<\/span><\/p>\n Eggs are an obvious symbol of fertility and thus, spring. Chicken eggs were often dyed; historically red in memory of Jesus blood, or pastel co<\/span>lors for spring. Sometimes these were <\/span>hard boiled<\/span>, sometimes they were\u00a0emptied of their contents (possibly symbolizing the empty tomb). It is said that the pilgrims were discouraged not to have special food to celebrate Easter after the long winter, so they boi<\/span>led eggs and painted them for the children. In Poland, Czech Republic and other Slavic countries, colorfully painted wooden eggs are sold for decorations. These have intricate patterns and are lovely, so it\u2019s good that they last. <\/span>They<\/span> are <\/span>a sort of poor ma<\/span>n\u2019s <\/span>Faberg\u00e9<\/span> egg<\/span>. Modern families often substitute plastic eggs with goodies inside or chocolate eggs. An Easter basket is perfect to hold the eggs from an Easter egg hunt.<\/span><\/p>\n Dolly Madison, wife of the fourth president, may have been the first to propose an e<\/span>gg rolling contest from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the other end. After her time, egg rolling on <\/span>the<\/span> Monday after Easter took place on the grounds of the Capitol. The children of <\/span>Washington,<\/span> D.C. look forward to this event and turn out in large nu<\/span>mbers to participate. Egg rolling has changed with the <\/span>times,<\/span> sometimes substituting egg tossing and catching, egg croquet or other egg events. The <\/span>event has been augmented by the Marine Band<\/span>, other organized games, a circus, balloons, antique cars, and mo<\/span>re, from year to year. In 1974 the White House kitchen spoons were brought out for an egg race event. The president and his family and pets attend\u00a0<\/span>this event which is the largest public event held at the White House each year. Of course, the Easter Bunny m<\/span>akes an appearance, too.<\/span><\/p>\n Happy Easter to our readers!<\/strong> What are your most treasured Easter traditions? Please share in the comments!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" History of Easter Eggs Spring is here and stores are decorated for Easter, offering pastel colored Easter items of every description. But where did Easter come from? Where did we get these traditions? Almost every culture has some celebration or festival for spring. Judaism has Passover or Pesach, Islam has Nowruz, Christianity has Easter. The ancient Romans celebrated spring and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2267,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,257,96],"tags":[551],"class_list":{"0":"post-4303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-families-caregivers","7":"category-family-friendly-activities","8":"category-holiday-fun","9":"tag-holidays"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhere does the word Easter come from?<\/span><\/h2>\n
What about those Easter eggs?<\/h2>\n
The first Easter egg hunt<\/h2>\n