Easter Eggs - why do we have them

Easter is almost here - it's one of the favourite times of the year for the Eazipay Team - because of the CHOCOLATE... Anyone that knows the team, knows we are partial to the odd bar of chocolate, and at Easter you can have as many as you like.

However, as we all know, Easter is perhaps the most religious time of the year for the Christian Faith. But why does that mean we give lots of chocolate eggs? We thought we would look into the history of the chocolate egg.

Thanks to several sites like Cadburyworld and Wikipedia we found out. We don't intend to get too historical here, we just like Easter Eggs and wanted to know more.

It turns out that the humble egg goes back a long long way in not only the Christian Faith, but Judaism, Pagans and pretty much most ancient cultures held the egg up as the emblem of life.

In more modern times, and in Christianity, the egg was used to celebrate the end of Lent. In Medieval times eggs were forbidden during Lent. It was traditional to use all the household eggs up before Lent began. There are no hard and fast facts about why we celebrate eggs, but is thought that due to the fact eggs are the symbol of life, and that after Lent, eggs became a prized gift for children and servants. There are some theories going back to Pagan times, relating to the Goddess of Dawn, and the birth of Spring. So it seems you will just have to choose your own theory.

Onto why Chocolate Eggs. The first ones appeared in Europe in the early 19th Century. It seems France and Germany led the way, so thanks to them :-) Before they started making these fancy chocolate eggs, they made wooden or cardboard eggs and filled them with confectionery.

Today the most famous of all the eggs is the Cadbury's Creme Egg, which made their first appearance in 1923, in an early form. The actual Creme Egg we have today didn't come along until 1971! And now it has become so famous that people associate Easter with Cadbury's Creme Eggs.

We, in the office, will be celebrating Easter in the modern way, by eating Chocolate Easter eggs. Perhaps not as big as this World Record Egg. This amazing egg stands 10.39m high and weighs a whopping 7200kg. That would last us at least a week!


Have a great Easter everyone. Remember if you are a Direct Debit user, we will be taking a bit of time off over the Easter break. So the office is closed:

GOOD FRIDAY 3^RD APRIL 2015 – CLOSED

EASTER MONDAY 6^TH APRIL 2015 – CLOSED

MONDAY 4^TH MAY 2015 – CLOSED

MONDAY 25^TH MAY 2015 - CLOSED