help the earth to be more fertile. Some people shunned consuming eggs or destroying them at all, for fear of harming fertility.
As Europe became Christian, eggs became a representation of Easter and the rising again of Christ. In the past, Christians gave up eggs for Lent, the 40 days that Christ was in the wilderness. But even though people didn’t eat them, the hens kept laying them! So people would hard-boil and decorate them which helped preserve them longer and serve as part of the holiday celebrations. The egg is also part of the Jewish Passover holiday that takes place in the Spring, representing sacrifice and rebirth.
It is hence in the Spring, when all is coming back into life after the winter, that the egg is most closely linked.
In 1996 The International Egg Commission celebrated the first World Egg Day; countries participate every year on the second Friday in October in an international movement to promote the egg and its health benefits.
The entire chicken rearing experience is beneficial, in spite of my original objections to the children. I’m a very keen cook who likes high-quality, fresh ingredients and we all love the difference in taste we are getting from our eggs. Eggs are so versatile and should be the star of your cooking and baking all year round, adapting your culinary use of them to the seasons.
This year for Easter we’re doing something special. We’ve bought a selection of novelty egg cups to sit our freshly laid eggs in, once the children have decorated them. We’ll wrap them simply in brown paper and present them as gifts. Still I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending that eggs are any stand-in for chocolate!
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