The association between eggs and the customs and traditions of Easter goes back centuries. During the Spring Equinox, the early Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Gauls and others gave eggs as gifts because they symbolised a new life. The Romans also awarded eggs as prizes in their celebratory Easter races.

In mediaeval times eggs were traditionally given as gifts to servants.

An ancient fertility symbol, the egg was adopted by early Christianity in connection with the miracle of the Resurrection, and the Feast of Eggs became attached to the celebration of Easter.

The practice of colouring eggs is also ancient. The Persians dyed theirs red, and others dyed them yellow to represent Spring sunlight, or in colours representative of flowers of the field.

Those also etched with various designs were exchanged as romantic gifts. Today, different cultures have developed their own ways of decorating Easter eggs. In Greece, crimson eggs honouring the blood of Christ, are exchanged, while in parts of Germany and Austria, green eggs are used on Maundy Thursday (today). Slavic people decorate their eggs in special patterns of gold and silver. Austrian artists fasten ferns and tiny plants around the eggs, which are then boiled. When the plant material is subsequently removed a striking pattern remains. Poles and Ukranians decorate eggs with simple designs and colours.

Pysanki (to design, to write) eggs are a masterpiece of skill and workmanship. Melted beeswax is applied to fresh white eggs, which are then dipped in successive dyes. After each dip, wax is painted over the area where the preceding colour is to remain. Eventually, a complex pattern of lines and colours emerges into a work of art. Armenians liked to pierce the ends of eggs, blow out the contents, and then decorated the hollowed shells with religious designs.

Around 1885, Russian jewellery Carl Faberg? took the decoration of eggs to new heights when he volunteered to create a jewellery egg for Czar Alexander III to give his wife, Marie. Faberg? kept the egg a secret, but delighted the royal family with an ordinary-looking egg, but with tiny surprises made of gold, enamel, and precious gems inside. Throughout Alexander?s reign, only one Faberg? egg was made each year and presented to the Czar at Easter. When Nicholas II became Czar, the jeweller made two eggs, one for him to give to his wife, Alexandra, and the other to his mother.

Egg rolling is another custom associated with Easter. For Christians it symbolises the rolling away of the stone from the tomb of the risen Christ.