Easter Eggs on Our Mind: Weird Facts! Youre hunting for plastic eggs and absent-mindedly biting the ears off chocolate bunnies. But if you jump down the rabbit hole, it turns out, the history of the Easter egg youre holding is way weirder than you think. Long before the "creme-filled" era, we were dealing with medieval "legal" loopholes involving literal tons of hard-boiled eggs, 13th-century kings flexing with actual gold-plated shells, and a chocolate revolution that wasto put it lightlya bit of a bumpy ride. Whether youre here for the trivia or just want to justify your chocolate intake, lets crack open seven interesting facts about how the humble egg became the ultimate global holiday icon. 1. It Started with a Literal Cold Storage Problem In the Medieval period, eggs were forbidden during Lent. But what did one do with the eggs that the chickens kept laying in that time period? To prevent waste, people hard-boiled the eggs, to preserve them. By the time Easter Sunday arrived, 40 days later, households had a massive surplus of eggs, leading to the tradition of feasting on them and giving them away as gifts. 2. The Royal "Gold Leaf" Flex! In 1290, King Edward I of England took egg decorating to a royal extreme. Apparently, he ordered 450 eggs to be boiled and then covered in gold leaf, to be distributed as gifts to the royal household a 13th-century version of a luxury gift basket (PS weve got some luxury gift baskets that you could be your own Easter flex!). 3. Medieval "Egg Potato" in Church Some medieval churches played a game with a hard-boiled egg. The priest would toss an egg to a choir boy, who would toss it to another, and so on. Whoever was holding the egg when the clock struck midnight got to keep it (and eat it). Wed suggest using JusTrufs Easter Goodies for your own take on this game theyre much more fun to eat ☺! 4. The First Chocolate Egg was a Bit... Rough The first chocolate Easter egg was produced in the UK by Frys in 1873. If you were to get your hands on one of those, though, you probably wouldn't recognise it (or savour it!). Early chocolate was grainy, dark, and bitter. It wasn't until Cadbury developed a way to make "hollow" eggs using cocoa butter in 1875 that the light, melt-in-your-mouth treats we know today became the standard. Check out the Guinness World Records, which maintains the official entry for the earliest hollow chocolate Easter eggs by Frys and the largest chocolate Easter egg from Italy, in 2011. 5. Why do Easter Eggs have that "crocodile skin" texture? Ever notice how many chocolate eggs have a bumpy, reptile-skin texture? This is called a crocodile finish. It originated in Germany as a clever way to hide cracks, air bubbles, or minor imperfections in the chocolate mould. It looked fancy, but it was actually a very effective quality-control hack! 6. The Ultimate Easter Egg: The Faberg The most famous Easter eggs in history aren't edible. In 1885, Tsar Alexander III of Russia commissioned the jeweller Peter Carl Faberg to make an Easter egg for his wife. It was a "First Hen" egg made of gold and enamel that opened to reveal a golden yolk, which opened to reveal a golden hen, which held a tiny diamond crown. Faberg made a total of 69 jewelled Easter eggs between 1883 and 1917. Fifty of these were made for the Russian Imperial family and are known as the Imperial Eggs. The other eggs were made for the aristocracy and financial elite. Each could take 2 years to make, with multiple artisans providing their craftsmanship. 7. Modern Tech and Media Today, an "Easter Egg" refers to an intentional inside joke, hidden message, or secret feature buried within a piece of software, video game, or film. Unlike a traditional egg hunt, these are found by users who perform specific (often obscure) actions. Googles "Do a Barrel Roll" One of the most famous modern eggs is purely functional (and funny). If you go to a Google search bar right now and type "do a barrel roll", the entire screen will spin 360 degrees. Its a tribute to the classic Nintendo game Star Fox 64! Interesting Additional Reading A history of easter eggs as a symbol of renewal can be found at https://www.glencairnmuseum.org/newsletter/2024/3/13/easter-eggs-symbols-of-rebirth-and-renewal Check out a historical blog post on which UK company made the first chocolate egg. Was it 1873? Or 1875? Heres a technical history of the crocodile finish on chocolate eggs and how it was used to hide manufacturing imperfections.
