The Rise of the Chocolate Easter Egg

The now-familiar chocolate Easter egg is a relatively recent innovation, emerging only in the 19th century as chocolate making technology advanced. Chocolate was first introduced to Europe in the 16th century (as a bitter drink from Mesoamerica), but it wasn’t until the 19th century that confectioners learned to produce solid, molded chocolate treats on a large scale. By the early 1800s, chocolatiers in France and Germany began experimenting with chocolate eggs, likely inspired by the popularity of traditional Easter eggs. These first chocolate eggs were typically solid (since the early chocolate paste was too thick to form hollow shapes easily)​. Each egg had to be hand-packed in a mold and was often quite dense. The process was painstaking, but the novelty of an edible candy egg caught on quickly.

Several developments in chocolate production paved the way for better Easter eggs. In 1828, Dutch inventor Coenraad van Houten introduced a press that separated cocoa butter from cacao solids, yielding a smoother cocoa butter that could be recombined with chocolate – a key step toward moldable chocolate​. In 1866 the Cadbury brothers in England further improved cocoa purity by removing cocoa fat impurities​. With these innovations, chocolate could be made more fluid and easier to pour into egg-shaped molds. The first chocolate Easter eggs in England are credited to J.S. Fry & Sons, a British chocolate company that produced a chocolate egg in 1873. Two years later, in 1875, the famous chocolatier John Cadbury made his first Easter eggs, launching what would become one of the most successful Easter product lines in history​. Cadbury’s earliest eggs were made of plain dark chocolate with a smooth surface, and were filled with sugared almonds (dragees) to resemble a real egg with “yolk” candies inside. They were then wrapped in colorful paper or decorated with a little piping of chocolate or marzipan for flair.

Over the next few decades, chocolate eggs evolved rapidly from a luxury item into a mass-market treat. By 1893, Cadbury’s catalog boasted 19 different styles of chocolate Easter eggs, ranging in size and decoration​. Confectioners learned to make hollow chocolate eggs by molding two halves and then sealing them together, which made larger eggs possible without excessive chocolate. (A textured “crocodile” pattern was even introduced by German manufacturers to hide any imperfections on the egg surface – a design idea that persists in some modern foil-wrapped eggs.) A major breakthrough came in 1905, when Cadbury launched its Dairy Milk chocolate, a sweeter, creamier milk chocolate. Dairy Milk was extremely popular, and its introduction “made a tremendous contribution to the Easter egg market”, vastly increasing sales​. By making Easter eggs out of this new milk chocolate, companies found consumers even more eager to buy them, especially for children. Throughout the 20th century, chocolate eggs became ubiquitous in Western Easter celebrations – an edible counterpart to the traditional dyed egg. What began as an adaptation of the symbolic egg to a confectionery novelty became a huge commercial enterprise: by the 21st century, giving chocolate eggs (or bunnies and other candies) at Easter had been fully secularized and commercialized, turned into a multi-million dollar industry by global confectionery brands​.

Though some lament the commercialization, the chocolate Easter egg remains a beloved tradition that cleverly unites ancient symbolism with modern sweetness. Its popularity has spread far beyond Europe – chocolate eggs (and sometimes white chocolate or candy eggs) are now sold and exchanged in many countries wherever Easter or spring festivals are celebrated. From cheap foil-wrapped treats to elaborate hand-painted chocolate creations, these eggs have reinterpreted the age-old symbol of the egg in a delicious new medium. And just as the medieval egg gifts sometimes hid coins or trinkets, today’s large chocolate eggs often hide surprise candies or toys inside, continuing the theme of discovery and delight.

Modern Easter Egg Traditions Around the World

Easter eggs – whether real or chocolate – are at the center of many popular customs and games that have developed around the globe. Two of the most widespread traditions are the Easter egg hunt and egg rolling, both of which engage children in playful activities with a symbolic twist. The egg hunt likely originated in German-speaking Europe; the first written reference comes from a 1682 account by a German professor, who describes children searching gardens for eggs supposedly laid by an Easter hare. German immigrants later brought this tradition to America, along with the legend of the Easter Bunny, a magical hare that delivers eggs to good children​. In a typical egg hunt, adults hide decorated eggs (or nowadays often plastic eggs filled with candy) in various places, and excited children race to find them. This tradition not only provides fun for families, but also echoes the theme of joyful discovery associated with finding the hidden treasure of new life. By the Victorian era, organizing egg hunts for children had become a firmly established Easter pastime​, and it remains so today in Europe, North America, and beyond. (Modern innovations include night-time flashlight egg hunts, and community egg hunts with thousands of eggs in parks.) The Easter Bunny – originally conceived as an egg-laying hare called Osterhase in German folklore – has become a universally recognized symbol of the holiday, delivering baskets of candy eggs and chocolates in many countries​.

Another cherished activity is egg rolling, in which participants roll hard-boiled eggs down a hill or along a defined course. In some interpretations this game has symbolic resonance: the rolling egg is likened to the rolling away of the stone from Christ’s tomb on Easter morning​. Egg rolling contests have been documented in Europe for centuries and continue in places like the UK (for example, children roll eggs down the hills of Lancashire on Easter Monday as an old regional custom). The most famous egg roll event today is the annual White House Easter Egg Roll in Washington, D.C. Each year on the Monday after Easter, children gather on the White House lawn to roll brightly colored eggs with spoons, racing one another in a festive atmosphere. The first official White House egg roll took place in 1878 under President Rutherford B. Hayes​, and with few exceptions (such as wartime or pandemic cancellations) the tradition has continued ever since. It has no specific religious significance, but as a public celebration it highlights how the Easter egg motif bridges secular fun and sacred symbolism in this holiday.

Many countries put their own spin on Easter egg customs. In Eastern Europe and the Balkans, where Orthodox Christianity is strong, it’s customary to bless baskets of eggs and foods on Holy Saturday and then use the dyed eggs in a cracking game similar to the Greek one described earlier. In Poland and Ukraine, families bring ornate baskets (often containing pysanky, sausage, butter, and bread) to church for the Święconka blessing, after which the foods are shared in an Easter meal. In Russia, the exchange of red-dyed eggs along with the greeting “Christ is Risen!” is a core part of the Easter liturgy and social celebration. In France, a tradition holds that the Easter eggs are brought not by a bunny but by the Easter bells (cloches de Pâques) – folklore says church bells fly to Rome and return with treats for children. In Germany and other parts of Central Europe, decorative egg trees (Ostersträuche or Osterbäume) are popular – trees or bushes are hung with hollowed, painted eggs much like a Christmas tree, to celebrate the season’s new life.

Some practices involve feats of strength or skill. Egg tapping (also called egg knocking or egg jarping) is a game found in many countries, from Greece to Armenia to Louisiana Cajun country: two players tap the pointed ends of their eggs together, and the one whose egg remains uncracked wins (and is said to have good luck or bragging rights until next Easter). In the United States, aside from egg hunts, children often dye eggs at home using store-bought coloring kits (the PAAS dye kit, invented in 1880, became a household staple)​ and use them as table decorations or to hide on Easter morning. Chocolate eggs and other candy now frequently fill the Easter baskets that children receive, especially in Western countries, sometimes overshadowing real eggs. Yet, many families still uphold the tradition of coloring real eggs because it is “part of tradition and it’s fun,” maintaining a physical link to the natural symbol of new life​. Thus, modern Easter celebrations often blend old and new: a child’s basket might contain both hand-dyed hardboiled eggs and plastic eggs filled with chocolates – the former connecting to a lineage of customs hundreds of years old, the latter representing the commercialization of the 20th century.

Easter Eggs in Art and Iconography

Easter eggs have not only been used in ritual and play, but have also inspired artists and artisans in various media. The practice of decorating eggs is itself a form of folk art, as seen in the pysanky of Ukraine, the krashanky of other Slavic nations (single-color dyed eggs often with scratch designs), and countless regional variants. The bold colors and intricate motifs of Easter eggs have been celebrated in museums and cultural exhibitions as a distinct art form passed down through generations of women (in many cultures, egg-decorating was a skill mothers taught to daughters). These eggs, whether simple or elaborate, carry visual symbols – the sun, stars, flowers, crosses, patterns – that tell stories of cultural identity and faith. As one commentator noted, an eggshell is a natural canvas for human creativity, inviting adornment with everything from simple dye baths to gold leaf​. Today, contemporary artists still create exhibition-quality decorated eggs, keeping alive motifs that are centuries old while also introducing modern themes.

In religious art, eggs occasionally appear as symbols of the Resurrection and immortality. In Eastern Christian iconography, for instance, Saint Mary Magdalene is often depicted holding a red egg in her hand – a direct visual reference to the miracle story of the red egg and a sign of her role as the first proclaimer of the risen Christ. Icons and paintings of the Resurrection sometimes include eggs (often red) at the feet of Christ or the apostles as a reminder of new life. A famous example is an Orthodox icon of Mary Magdalene presenting a red egg to Emperor Tiberius, sometimes with the words “Christ is Risen” inscribed on the egg itself​. In Western art, eggs as Easter symbols are less common in older eras, but some Renaissance and Baroque still-life paintings include eggs to signify fertility or the Easter season. Modern religious art and church decorations at Easter will frequently incorporate eggs and egg imagery (for example, Easter candle stands adorned with eggs or banners with egg motifs).

The opulent Fabergé eggs, mentioned earlier, straddle the realms of decorative art and cultural symbol. While they were personal gifts and not meant for public display at the time of their creation, they have since become artistic icons of Easter. Houses of worship in Eastern Europe sometimes have replicas of the Fabergé eggs on display or use specially decorated eggs to adorn altars during Paschal celebrations. The Fabergé eggs have also appeared in various museum exhibitions, appreciated purely for their craftsmanship. They exemplify how the egg motif can be elevated to the highest levels of artistic expression – enameled, bejeweled, and engineered with surprises, yet still fundamentally recognizable as eggs.

Beyond explicitly Easter-themed art, eggs have appeared as symbols in secular modern culture and literature. Surrealist artists like Salvador Dalí used egg imagery in paintings (for example, Dalí’s “Metamorphosis of Narcissus” features an egg as a symbol of new life and transformation). In literature, an egg can symbolize potential and rebirth – as in Oscar Wilde’s poem “The Sphinx,” where the cosmic egg of night yields the phoenix, or in folk tales where eggs hatch fantastical creatures. The enduring allure of the egg shape has even influenced architecture and design (Fabergé’s work later inspired jewelers and glassmakers to produce egg-shaped ornaments, and some public art installations feature giant decorated eggs displayed in city plazas during Easter time). In sum, the Easter egg has transcended its humble form to become a visual icon – celebrated in museum-quality folk art, sanctified in religious imagery, and treasured in forms as grand as the Fabergé eggs or as simple as a child’s crayon drawing on an eggshell.

Eggs in Mythology and Folklore: Stories of Creation and Rebirth

Eggs’ association with birth and rebirth has made them powerful symbols not only in religious tradition but also in mythology and folklore worldwide. We have already touched on ancient creation myths that feature a World Egg giving rise to the cosmos. This idea – that the universe itself was born from an egg – appears in Hindu, Egyptian, Greek, Finnic, Chinese, and other mythologies​. In Hindu mythology, the source of creation is often the golden egg Hiranyagarbha, from which the god Brahma emerged to form the world. In Finnish folklore (as told in the Kalevala epic), a divine duck lays an egg upon the waters of chaos; the egg falls and shatters, and from its pieces the earth and sky are formed. Such tales, though varied in detail, share a recognition of the egg as a container of profound generative potential – the “cosmic egg” embodies the mystery of life itself waiting to unfold.

Themes of resurrection and renewal are also frequently linked to egg imagery in myths. The legendary Phoenix, a mythical bird from ancient Egyptian and later Greek lore, exemplifies rebirth: at the end of its long life, the phoenix burns itself to ashes, and from those ashes a new phoenix arises. In one version, the newborn phoenix collects the ashes of its predecessor and encases them in an egg of myrrh, which it then delivers to the temple of the sun god in Heliopolis​. This “egg of myrrh” in the phoenix story is a potent symbol – a fragrant capsule of death that paradoxically bears new life. It’s no coincidence that early Christians saw the phoenix as an allegory of resurrection and even linked it to Easter; the bird and its egg of ashes both signified immortality and the cyclical victory of life over death. In medieval bestiaries, the phoenix’s egg sometimes appeared as a symbol of Christ’s tomb from which new life comes, paralleling the Easter egg tradition.

Folk tales around the world have spun imaginative narratives involving eggs to explain natural phenomena or impart moral lessons. One famous Slavic folktale is that of Koschei the Deathless, an evil sorcerer who cannot be killed because he has hidden his soul (or “death”) apart from his body. In the tale, Koschei’s soul is concealed in a needle, which is inside an egg, which in turn is inside a duck, inside a hare, locked in an iron chest and buried under a green oak tree on an island – a complex chain of concealment​. The hero must find the egg and break it, which contains the needle that holds Koschei’s life force, in order to defeat the villain. This dramatic story highlights the egg as a vessel of life – even the life of a seemingly invincible antagonist is ultimately fragile, contained in an egg. Variants of the “external soul in an egg” motif appear in many cultures’ folklore (scholars call it the “Ogre’s Heart in the Egg” tale type), showing how widespread the idea of an egg guarding one’s vitality has been in human imagination.

Even the whimsical elements of Easter folklore draw on older mythic themes. The Easter Bunny itself, a character beloved by children, has roots in German folklore and possibly in pagan myth. A charming (though not ancient) legend tells of the goddess Ostara (also known as Ēostre) who transformed a bird into a hare to save it from the cold – and the hare, retaining the ability to lay eggs, would decorate and deliver these eggs in gratitude each spring. This story of an egg-laying rabbit was popularized by folklorists and became part of Easter tradition, explaining why a bunny brings eggs. Modern scholarship suggests that this particular Ostara tale was largely an invention of the 19th century rather than a genuinely ancient myth​. Nevertheless, it has been embraced in the popular culture surrounding Easter, blending the fertility symbolism of the hare and the egg in one narrative. The persistence of such stories indicates how natural it was (and is) for people to link the animal kingdom’s spring fertility (rabbits, birds) with the earth’s renewal (eggs, flowers) in explaining the significance of Easter.

Finally, the concept of the Easter egg has even entered the realm of metaphor and modern folklore in a unique way: in software, film, and media, the term “Easter egg” now refers to a hidden feature or inside joke planted for discoverers – an homage to the idea of a hidden prize waiting to be found, just like kids hunting for eggs in the grass. This usage was popularized after the 1979 video game Adventure contained a secret message from its programmer, dubbed the first video game “Easter egg.” The metaphor underscores the delightful surprise and sense of rebirth (new insight or hidden content revealed) associated with finding an Easter egg. It’s a testament to how deeply the egg-hunt tradition has embedded itself in our collective consciousness that even high-tech software engineers use the term for their hidden treasures.

Conclusion: From the dawn of human culture, the egg has stood for the mystery of life and creation. Its incorporation into the Easter celebration brought together ancient springtime joy with the Christian message of resurrection. Over centuries, the humble egg has been at various times a religious emblem, a token of love, a canvas for art, a child’s toy, a gourmet luxury, and a commercial product – yet it has never lost its core symbolism of hope, new life, and renewal. Whether exchanged as a dyed hen’s egg or a foil-wrapped chocolate treat, the Easter egg continues to carry layers of meaning. It links us to nature’s cycles of life, to our ancestors’ customs, to spiritual themes of death and rebirth, and to the simple pleasure of giving. Every spring, as people around the world hide, hunt, crack, gift, and savor eggs, they participate in a human story that stretches back millennia – celebrating the eternal promise of spring and the sweetness of renewed life.

Sources:

• History.com – “Easter Symbols and Traditions”

• Stephanie Hall, Folklife Today (Library of Congress) – “The Ancient Art of Decorating Eggs”​

• James Daybell, University of Plymouth – “The Unexpected History of Easter Eggs”​

• Chocolate Trading Co. – “History of Chocolate Easter Eggs”​

• Gather Magazine – “Symbols of the Resurrection: The true story of the Easter egg”​

• School of the Sacred Wild – “The Pagan Roots of Easter” (blog)​

• Mental Floss – “The Surprisingly Controversial Origins of the Easter Bunny”​

• Wikipedia – “Cosmic Egg” mythology “Fabergé egg” “Phoenix” (via Britannica); The Death of Koschei the Deathless​