Ancient Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians and Hindus observed that the world itself looked like a giant egg. The egg hid the mystery of life beneath its thin shell, which is why it has become such a popular symbol of new beginnings, mystery and infinity.

In Greece, you may see solid red eggs that symbolize the redeeming blood of Christ.

Believe it or not, symbolism of the egg appears in many cultures. In Hinduism, Brahma splits a divine golden egg to make heaven (the shell), earth (the meat), the space and water (the white), and Vishnu (the yolk).

In Egyptian tradition, the god Osiris is also born from an egg, which is why priests never ate eggs. Christians, too, saw the egg as a symbol of God’s mystery of birth and rebirth.

Early Anglo-Saxons celebrated the egg as a sign of fertility and pagans exchanged eggs around the beginning of the year to suggest one’s intentions to be reborn around spring equinox time. The Easter egg tradition has evolved over the years, blossoming from religious philosophical meanings into the edible contents of one’s Easter gift basket.

In 14th Century Germany, children were told if they were good, Easter Bunny would lay colored eggs in the nests they had hidden around the yard. Children would design their Easter baskets out of hats, bonnets, straw, sticks or hay and anxiously await the coming of “Oschterhase” ie the Easter Bunny.

The Greek Easter egg was sometimes wrapped in a golden leaf or dyed with vinegar and food coloring. Some parts of Germany exchanged green eggs, while other regions decorated hollow eggs. By the 1800s, Easter eggs not only came in the traditional form, but came as egg-shaped chocolate morsels too.

One of the most famous types of the Easter egg comes from Russia, where Fabergé eggs are made. In 1885, Peter Carl Fabergé handcrafted his first golden egg commissioned by Tsar Alexander III as an Easter gift bag for his wife Maria Fyodorovna.

Inside the elaborate white-gold egg, she was surprised to find a golden yolk, which opened up to reveal a golden hen, which wore a tiny crown with rubies hanging from it.

She was so delighted that the imperial eggs were commissioned each year from 1885 to 1917, as Fabergé and his artisans handcrafted sixty-eight more jeweled eggs made of precious stones and metals for Alexander III, but also Nicholas II and the prestigious Kelch family of Moscow.

Replicas of the opulent eggs have been valued between $1,000 and $2,000 and the 1913 Fabergé “Winter Egg” sold for $9.6 million in 2002. It was said that each province, village and family in Ukraine had its own unique symbols, rituals and traditions.

Traditions associated with Easter eggs go far beyond decorating. The British began something called “the Easter egg roll,” where contestants roll their eggs down a hill to the finish line, hopefully without breaking them!

Similarly, there is an annual egg roll on the White House lawn each Easter Monday, which began with Dolly Madison in the 1800s and persists even today. In Northern England, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Hungary, Croatia, Lebanon, Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and Southern Louisiana, “Egg Jarping” (sometimes called “Egg Tapping,” “Egg Dumping,” “Ostereiertitschen,” “Eierpecken,” “Tucanje” or “Pocking Eggs”) contests abound, where contestants try to smash each others’ eggs, with the loser eating the smashed consolation prize.

Yet, for most cultures, fresh Easter eggs are seen as prized eats after an arduous winter, and fasting during the Holy Season of Lent.