A Brief History of Easter Egg Dying
I love Easter because it gives you such a great chance to be creative.
The tradition of dying Easter eggs dates as far back as the 13th century and comes from the Germans. According to history.com, children built small nests for a mystical rabbit to have a place to lay his colored eggs. I personally believe that if a mystical rabbit is running around laying eggs, it is probably a female rabbit, though I might be wrong. In the middle ages, eggs were boiled to ensure they would last long enough for people to eat them. They were one of the foods Christians were not allowed to consume during Lent; the 40 day period leading up to Easter. I imagine that dying the eggs made people even more excited to eat them before they had a chance to get any older. Wasting food could be a death sentence for a family during this time.
Many cultures have had traditions of painting eggs throughout history. Some are much older than Christianity as a whole. Dying Easter eggs can be a craft for everyone, regardless of your religion. They may be “Random Sunday” eggs instead of Easter eggs for any non-observers.
Henry Elis wrote in 1877 that many Easter eggs were dyed red in remembrance of the blood spilt by Jesus on the cross, to be spent as a sacrifice to pay the fee for the entrance of mankind into heaven. There are records of eggs being painted as well as dyed, and sometimes even gilded.
There are many different ways people throughout history have decorated their eggs. The oldest form of egg dying as we think of it today is from the Greeks. They wrapped their eggs in onion skins and vinegar, giving the eggs a light, golden sheen. Many different sources mention red, green and yellow when talking about colors of Easter eggs. Each of these tones would have been easy in a medieval kitchen, with some preparation. Some families today still dye eggs in this fashion. You can add other items to the package as the eggs cook to create a swirl of color on your eggs. You can find a really useful guide here. These can be made with natural things found outside and the inedible parts of onions, making them good candidates for having been around for a while. There are also some suggestions for other natural dyes that may have been possible. His methods all use other foods, so unless the family had another reason for cooking the food in this method or they were royals, it would be unlikely that these were popular methods in the middle ages.
Immigrants brought the tradition of Easter eggs to the Americas as early as 1700. The first Easter egg roll happened at the White House in 1878 under President Hayes, who allowed children access to the White House lawn because his predecessor, President Grant, had outlawed egg rolling on all public grounds. The police chased merrymakers away so they did not ruin the lawns and thus created one of the oldest White House traditions.
The pre-packaged egg dyes that we all know from our childhood date all the way back to the 1890’s, but today the internet has given us a plethora of creative ideas to make your eggs stand out. This is a list of my top method picks from across the internet.
These eggs look like they’re right out of a dinosaur! I love the colors these have. They used crayon remnants to melt over hot eggs. They look great, but there isn’t much information about how easy it is to get the egg out of the shell after they’ve been baked again.
You can create your own filled easter eggs with whatever sweet treats you want! With this recipe, you blow the inside of the egg out, keeping the shell intact for decorating and reuse. The eggs themselves can be used for other meals earlier in the week.
These guys aren’t exactly dyed easter eggs, but you have a ton of opportunity here. You can make eggs with just a few layers, or if you’re having an adult only kind of easter, you can fill them up with the boozy kind of jello. They’re sure to be the hit of the party!
These very cool tie dye eggs give you no more fights over which color egg anyone gets! You can have all the colors in one. They’re a little more time consuming, but they look like tons of fun.
Half arts and crafts, half mini-science fair project, these fizzing Easter eggs look like they’ve got every little nerd loving their holiday decorating.
There are a lot of natural dyes out there, but the colors you can get out of a few different types of tea are amazing. Plus, you can always drink some really great tea of your own while your eggs pick up the colors. Instead of having vibrant, rainbow colored eggs, you end up with a palette of natural hues.
If you love the look of newsprint, you can make these black and white beauties out of pages of print. If you’re like me and you just can’t bring yourself to use actual books, you can print of pages of type and use those to make your eggs. You can do this with sheet music or any other print as well. Unlike many of our other ideas, these eggs can be kept for years to come.
Spacey eggs for the sci-fi lover in all of us. These eggs are gorgeous, with layers and layers of color and sparkle. It’s like a galaxy in every egg.
Looking for a use for those nail polishes that have all been sitting around? Love bright, multicolored eggs? Try this out! These look amazing, and they can really fit your personality with an entire rainbow of colors available at your local CVS.
I think these are my favorite Easter eggs. Who doesn’t love color changing everything? They’re not real eggs though; more of a craft project, so I’m not sure they are quite as cool as some of the other ones that are actually edible.
This method is taking the internet by storm this year. I swear, I’ve started seeing these eggs everywhere I click. They’re whimsical and colorful, and definitely more unique than most of the eggs I’ve made before.
These eggs look awesome! Keep watching for some of our own eggy experiments and some more of our geeky favorites.
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