Decorating and coloring eggs for Easter was the custom in England during the Middle Ages. The household accounts of Edward I, for the year 1290, recorded an expenditure of eighteen pence for four hundred and fifty eggs to be gold-leafed and colored for Easter gifts.

The most famous decorated Easter eggs were those made by the well-known goldsmith, Peter Carl Faberge. In 1883 the Russian Czar, Alexander, commissioned Faberge to make a special Easter gift for his wife, the Empress Marie.

The first Faberge egg was an egg within an egg. It had an outside shell of platinum and enameled white which opened to reveal a smaller gold egg. The smaller egg, in turn, opened to display a golden chicken and a jeweled replica of the Imperial crown.

This special Faberge egg so delighted the Czarina that the Czar promptly ordered the Faberge firm to design further eggs to be delivered every Easter. In later years Nicholas II, Alexander's son, continued the custom. Fifty-seven eggs were made in all.

Where did this tradition come from? 

Both the egg and the rabbit are age old fertility symbols that can be traced back to the pagan origins of Easter. The ancient Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians, and Hindus all believed the world began with an enormous egg, thus the egg as a symbol of new life has been around for eons.

Historians widely accept that Easter actually began as a pagan fertility rite celebrating the rebirth of life in spring. The word Easter is from the word “Eostre”, the name of the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe . Eostre also gave her name to the female hormone oestrogen.

Her feast day was held on the full moon following the vernal (spring) equinox – almost identical to the date of Christian Easter!

There is a legend associated with Eostre that tells of how she found an injured bird on the ground one winter. In order to save its life, she transformed it into a hare. However the transformation was incomplete and it retained its ability to lay eggs. To express its appreciation, the hare would decorate these eggs and leave them as gifts to Eostre!

However a strong association with eggs also exists within the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Passover Seder features a hard boiled egg. symbolic of the Temple sacrifice, and as a symbol of life.

With the advent of Christianity the symbolism of the egg changed to represent the rebirth of man. Christians embraced the egg symbol and likened it to the tomb from which Christ rose.