This last weekend of March marks the Easter celebrations. Like every year, millions of people will celebrate Easter around the world by indulging in the famous tradition of hunting for eggs and chocolate bunnies.
If this festival is above all one of the greatest Christian solemnities because it celebrates the birth of Christ, it is surrounded by some popular traditions that appeal to young and old: the hunt for chocolate eggs and the tasting of all kinds of chocolates.
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This period when we commemorate the resurrection of Christ marks the end of Lent. These forty days were not considered joyous, at the time it was necessary to deprive oneself of meat and other products derived from animals. Until the 7th century,
the Church then prohibited the consumption of eggs during Lent.
But as the hens continued to lay eggs, the eggs were preserved and decorated to be offered on Easter Sunday, in front of a true symbol of this celebration. It was only in the 18th century, when cocoa became popular, that the idea of emptying eggs to fill them with chocolate appeared to mark the end of Lent.
The egg, symbol of fertility and life
Since then, chocolatiers have managed to create their own chocolate shells and offer chocolate eggs, which quickly became the symbol of the Easter celebration. “The custom of offering chocolate eggs or rabbits is of commercial origin,” assures the Catholic Church of France.
If the egg is a symbol of fertility and life, the rabbit is a symbol of love and fertility, particularly because of the speed at which it reproduces. This is why it was naturally associated with Easter by Christians. In Germany and eastern France, it is customary to say that it is a rabbit who brings eggs to children. Since then, the rabbit has established itself as a symbol of Easter, found everywhere in chocolate.
The tradition of bells that bring chocolate is a direct reference to Christianity. Indeed, from Maundy Thursday until Easter, churches no longer ring their bells as a symbol of mourning for Jesus. It is said that the bells go to Rome where they are blessed by the Pope at the end of Lent and on Easter morning, they return ringing to announce the resurrection of Christ... and to bring chocolate.