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LoginWhy Easter Eggs Became A Famous Tradition
6 Min
25/03/20266 Min25/03/2026
Whilst the chocolate Easter egg is a relatively new tradition, the origin of the Easter egg, and many modern Easter symbols, goes back a very long way and predates Christianity. Eggs were symbols of fertility and spring renewal across ancient cultures long before the resurrection story attached itself to them. Getting from there to a foil-wrapped chocolate egg took Pagan festivals, a medieval fasting rule, a German egg-laying hare, and a Bristol factory.
An Easter egg is a decorated or chocolate egg given as a gift during the Easter season. In Christianity, especially in Orthodox Christianity and Eastern Catholicism, the Easter egg is symbolic of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the hard shell representing the sealed tomb and cracking the shell representing the resurrection.
But the egg as a symbol of spring renewal is considerably older. The tradition of dyeing eggs originated at least 2,500 years ago in the Trypillian culture of Central Europe, and historians believe the ancient Persians and Zoroastrians painted eggs for Nowruz, their New Year celebration at the Spring Equinox.
For ancient Romans, eggs symbolised new life and fertility. It was customary to colour them with vegetable dye and gift them to neighbours and friends during spring. Some historians believe Easter eggs came from Anglo-Saxon spring festivals celebrating the goddess Eostre, who represented the dawn in spring, the same goddess whose name may be the origin of the word Easter.
At the feast of Eostre, the Saxon fertility goddess, the hare and the egg were both primary symbols of fertility. Whether or not Eostre as a deity is historically documented with certainty, what is clear is that eggs were already embedded in spring celebrations by the time Christian missionaries arrived in Europe.
In the Middle Ages, eggs were prohibited during Lent alongside meat and dairy. Medieval chefs found ways around this, and for Easter, a period of celebration, eggs were back on the table with particular significance. During Lent, Christians did not eat eggs as part of fasting. Instead, they preserved them and dyed them special colours to distinguish them from fresher eggs. When they broke their fast on Easter, they consumed the coloured eggs first.
One of the earliest pieces of evidence of dyed eggs in British history goes back to 1290, when the household of Edward I bought 450 eggs to be coloured or covered in gold leaf to distribute among the royal entourage for Easter. Across Europe, eggs were also given as a tithe to the local church on Good Friday, which is likely where the tradition of gifting eggs originates.
The tradition of Easter egg hunts and gifting eggs to children originated in Germany in the 17th century. Easter egg hunts are linked to Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer, who is said to have organised them for his followers – men would hide eggs for women and children to find, the joy of discovery meant to mirror the joy the Apostles felt upon finding Christ's empty tomb.
The Easter Bunny arrived in America in the 1700s with German immigrants who brought the tradition of an egg-laying hare called ‘Osterhase’ or ‘Oschter Haws’. Their children made nests in which the creature could lay its coloured eggs – baskets eventually replaced nests, and candy replaced real eggs. As a child, Queen Victoria enjoyed egg hunts put on by her German mother and helped popularise the tradition across Great Britain.
In 1828, Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten built a hydraulic press that could remove around half the natural fat from chocolate liquor, creating a more uniform, less bitter cocoa powder – a process that made chocolate far easier to mould. This was the technical breakthrough that made chocolate eggs possible.
It was the French and Germans who first made eggs out of chocolate in the 19th century, though these early confections were solid rather than hollow. The first reference found was a chocolate egg seized by customs in Germany in 1862, thought to be so unusual that it was returned to France, where its owner had purchased it. In the UK, it was J.S. Fry & Sons of Bristol who produced the first hollow chocolate egg in 1873.
In 1875, a British chocolate giant unveiled their own version – dark chocolate Easter eggs filled with sugared almonds, designed for mass production. Unlike Fry's handcrafted creations, their manufacturing approach gave them a competitive edge, and their eggs rapidly gained popularity. By 1893, this company was producing 19 different designs of chocolate eggs. The crocodile skin pattern visible on early chocolate eggs started here, as a way of disguising cracks and imperfections on the chocolate surface.
The launch of their popular milk chocolate bar in 1905 saw Easter eggs adopt milk chocolate shells, and cream-filled versions appeared in 1923. In 1916, Selfridges in London was recorded as selling plain chocolate eggs alongside novelty Parisian eggs decorated in gold and silver, filled with a silk bag containing sweets. In the 1960s, chocolate manufacturers transformed these treats from luxury items into household favourites, making them accessible to families worldwide. The first Fry's Creme Egg was made in 1963, and it was renamed in 1971.
Ukraine, Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania hand-painted their Easter eggs with intricate folk patterns, called pysanky in Ukraine. In Italy, large hollow chocolate eggs containing a hidden gift or sorpresa inside are the standard – the excitement of cracking open the egg to discover the surprise inside is a central part of Easter celebrations. In Mexico, hollowed-out cascarones are painted, filled with confetti, and cracked over people's heads during Easter as a symbol of good luck.
The Easter egg’s journey from a Zoroastrian painted egg at the Spring Equinox, to a medieval peasant's Lenten offering, to a German child's nest-hunt, to a big chocolate factory line in Birmingham, is one of the more complete origin stories in food history. Whatever your beliefs, Easter today represents a time for celebrating new life and spring, with some intriguing traditions that come with it.
