Why paint eggs for Easter

Long ago people paint eggs for Easter: this tradition has many centuries, and most people take it for granted, without even thinking about why it is done. In fact, it is even older than the Easter holiday itself, and its history goes far into the depths of centuries. Historians can only guess why they paint eggs for Easter, and there are several versions on this subject.

The modern explanation of why the eggs are painted on Easter today, which many Christians adhere to, is this: there is one beautiful ancient legend about Mary Magdalene that brought the message of the Resurrection of Christ to the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Since it was impossible to appear to the court of the emperor without offerings, and Mary Magdalene had no opportunity not only to bring luxurious gifts, but simply to make a gift, she took a regular chicken egg with her. When the emperor listened to her message, he said mockingly that he would believe that a dead person could rise again, only when the usual egg turns red, well, even that. There was a miracle - the egg immediately flushed. By the way, Christian sources do not have a description of such a story, and this version is not considered official, but is very beloved by believers. It is to this story, in their opinion, that the tradition of painting eggs for Easter goes back.

According to another, less miraculous version of the same legend, Mary Magdalene simply gave the emperor a red-colored egg with an inscription formed from the first two letters of the sentence "Christ is risen" - and this was the first Easter egg.

Unbiased researchers tend to believe that Christians adopted this tradition from earlier cults. Indeed, it exists in many pre-Christian beliefs, in particular, among the Slavs. Why do they paint eggs? In pagan cults, the egg was a symbol of fertility, and in the spring the Slavs also had a great holiday dedicated to the awakening of nature and the beginning of the fertile season, and eggs as its symbol were decorated in every way. Over time, these holidays have merged and the uneducated layers of the population are messed up. Perhaps the aforementioned legends appeared to justify the fact that Christian believers became the largest Christian holiday to observe pagan rites. By the way, some clergymen with radical views still do not welcome this, not understanding why they paint eggs for Easter. Some of them even say that it's a sin, and they try to forbid parishioners from painting eggs. But this tradition has become so established and became a part of Christian culture that believers meet such statements with bewilderment.

There is also a more prosaic explanation of why the eggs are painted for Easter. Perhaps this was due to the fact that during a long fasting it was impossible to eat them, and, so that they did not deteriorate, they cooked, adding various herbs, for example, onion husks, so as not to confuse the boiled eggs with dyed.

In fact, is it worth pondering why the eggs are painted for Easter - wherever the roots of this tradition originate, the main thing is that it is very beautiful and popular. Why paint eggs for Easter? To decorate the festive table, so that it was fun to congratulate each other - that's the right answer. Many colored folk games are associated with colored eggs - which of us did not play with them in childhood, checking the egg for strength? And how happy it was to win someone else's egg, and it does not matter whether we liked to eat them or not. Also, colored eggs appear in many beliefs and rituals. In particular, sometimes for the successful construction and future well-being of residents in the foundation of the house under construction they laid an Easter egg, and there are many such traditions, and each people has their own. In general, painting eggs is fun and beautiful, no matter what kind of rite this story has.