So many people have asked this question before that when I finally asked, and pursued an answer, I found a plethora of interesting facts, stories, a myth! So what is the question? Why do we eat chocolate bunnies and eggs at Easter time?
The short of it is that the tradition of exchanging chocolates and other sweets at Easter began to flourish in France and Germany during the 19th century. Symbols associated with springtime, such as the ever popular egg, date back to pagan times and were considered universal symbols of rebirth, rejuvenation and immortality. Another “famous” symbol is the Easter Bunny. The earliest mention of the mythical humanoid rabbit who brings baskets of colored eggs and goodies to children, dates to the 1600s in Alsace and southwestern Germany. Like the history of the Easter egg, the concept of rabbits and hares as symbols of springtime, rebirth and fertility goes back to pagan times. Germans also were those responsible for starting the tradition of hiding Easter eggs, and were the first to create edible Easter Bunnies in the early 1800s.
Hmmm, interesting. Now let’s change the emphasis here just a tad… So, why do we eat chocolate at Easter time? I don’t know about you all, but I myself sure do have a lot of German ancestry, for a start. (Maybe that’s also why I make chocolate!)Yet the most basic and forthright answer just might be that we love it so much!
Oh, and if you’re looking for something fun to do the day before Easter, we will be hosting a good old fashioned Easter egg hunt in the garden behind Divani Chocolatier and Barista, our chocolate shop in Foxburg. Kids 10 years old and younger are invited. Toddlers of walking age may be accompanied by a parent. The hunt will begin at 11 am and end when all the eggs are found! There will be prizes inside the eggs, so be sure to find them all!
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