We have a free “newspaper” in the area called Tidbits. It has a topic each week and lists interesting background, trivia, etc. on that topic. I just read the Easter issue. I’ve been behind on my reading.
Easter falls on Sunday, April 5 this year, but that’s not always the date. Read along as Tidbits presents the facts on how the date is determined as well as other info on this holiday that marks the end of the Lenten season.
The calculation to determine the date of Easter is a little complicated. It always falls on the first Sunday after the full moon date that falls on or after March 21. But if the full moon is on a Sunday, Easter moves to the following Sunday. Easter can fall on any date between March 22 and April 25.
To Christians, Easter eggs symbolize the tomb of Jesus, from which He was resurrected from the dead. Beginning centuries ago, during the Lenten season, the 40 days of prayer preceding Easter, eating eggs was prohibited, as believers abstained from meat and animal products. As the fasting ended, eggs were decorated as a festive way of celebrating the resurrection on Easter Sunday.
How did a rabbit become a symbol of Easter? Eostre was the Germanic mythological goddess of fertility and Spring, with an animal symbol of a rabbit, due to their high degree of reproduction. As far back as 1682, a German folk tale told of a hare hiding eggs in gardens and bushes for children to find. German immigrants brought the tradition to Pennsylvania during the 1700s.
Australians greet Spring with the Easter Bilby, a long-eared marsupial mammal that lives in burrows. The Easter Cuckoo brings candy and gifts to children in Switzerland, while in Russia, dogs lay the Easter eggs.
About 90 million chocolate bunnies are produced worldwide every year. Bunnies weren’t always made of chocolate. Up until the mid-1800s when chocolate molds became commonly available to chocolatiers, bunnies were created by hand from cardboard or papier mache and filled with treats. The molds were used to create solid chocolate bunnies.
In 1890, a Pennsylvania merchant ordered up a giant chocolate bunny to display in his shop’s window to attract customers during the Easter season. The bunny was such a hit, it earned Robert Strohecker the nickname “Father of the Easter Bunny Business.” Robert’s grandson Ben established Harbor Sweets Chocolates in 1973, and the company continues to create handmade chocolates, including smaller versions of Robert’s original sculpture.
In 2017, a team of nine professionals from Brazil’s Equipe da Casa do Chocolate created what remains the world’s largest chocolate rabbit. The team worked for eight days on the sculpture that stood nearly 15 feet tall, 7 feet wide and 6 feet wide. Final weight for the bunny was 9,359.7 lbs.
Brazil is also home to the world’s largest decorated Easter egg, standing 54 feet, 10.3 in. tall with a 35 ft., 8.35-inch diameter. The people of Pomerode, Brazil fashioned the egg in 48 days for their annual Easter festival in 2023, painting it in a multicolored Kashubian Slavic folk art style. But this egg wasn’t destined to be eaten, since it was made out of welded steel on the inside and foam and canvas on the outside shell.
The world’s largest edible Easter egg was made in 2011 in Tosca, Italy, measuring just over 34 feet tall, and more than 64 feet wide. The egg’s weight was 15,873 lbs. about the equivalent of two orca whales.
Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, marking the end of the Lenten season. The ingredients contained in the buns symbolize elements of the crucifixion of Jesus, such as the spices representing the spices to embalm Him. Orange peel signifies the bitterness of Jesus’ time on the cross, while the cross marking in icing on the top of the bun symbolizes the cross itself. Written accounts support the claim that 14th-century monk Brother Thomas Rodcliffe was the first to bake and distribute the buns to the poor on Good Friday in 1361. In 1767, a nursery rhyme published in the “London Chronicle” contained the line “One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns.”
In 1885, the Russian tzar Alexander III commissioned a jeweled egg from the House of Faberge as an Easter gift for his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna. The egg was known as the Hen Egg, whit a white enameled shell on the outside and a golden yolk inside that opened to a golden hen and miniature diamond crown. Over the next 32 years, Gustav Faberge created 69 more jeweled Easter eggs, of which 61 have survived. Fifty of them were “Imperial Eggs,” exclusively for the Russian czars, eggs made from gold, silver, diamonds, and pearls, with each containing a “surprise” on the inside, such as mechanical devices or miniature portraits. Eight Imperial Eggs remain unaccounted for. The Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty, and many eggs were lost or sold. Faberge himself fled to Switzerland, where he died three years later.
Three Faberge eggs are part of England’s Royal Collection, and American publisher Malcolm Forbes amassed a collection of nine, purchasing his first in the 1960s. One Imperial Easter Egg, made from solid 18-karat gold, was lost until 2012, when a flea market scrap metal dealer recognized it and purchased it for $14,000. Its current estimated value is $33 million, the world’s most expensive Easter egg.
Every year on the Monday after Easter, the White House hosts its annual Easter egg roll on the South Lawn of the grounds. It began in 1878 during the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison added music to the celebration, provided by the United States Marine Band. No Easter Egg Rolls were held during World War I from 1917 to 1920 or World War II from 1943 to 1945. White House renovations prevented the festivities from 1946 to 1952. Bad weather put a halt to the egg rolls in several years, and Covid-19 halted the fun in 202 and 2021. President Ronald Reagan started a new tradition in 1981, when wooden eggs bearing autographs of celebrities became the day’s keepsakes. Today, wooden eggs are inscribed with the signatures of the President and First Lady, and are gifted to all those 13 years old and younger. tickets to the event are free and are offered through an online lottery system. More than 40,000 participated in 2025’s Egg Roll.
