Easter Eggs

[Gerry]

As a child I remember going into the lean to shed that was built in my Granny's tiny whitewashed yard. The only other colour in that yard was the black painted coping stones on the top of the back wall and the bright blue of the toilet door and drain pipes.

The shed was made of wood salvaged from pallets from the docks were Big Willy mooched about. I don't think he actually worked in the docks but he used to bring a lot of things home from them. The man that owned the docks must have been a very generous man I thought. The roof of the shed was jet black with tar and the stray threads of the fabric inside the tar poked out like the grey hairs on Tinney's long hair that she somehow always missed when dying it.

I loved it when Big Willy would undo the borrowed padlock on the shed door and let me come in to see his prize birds of all those amazing colours and sizes. It was coming up to Easter when Big Willie took me into the shed and carefully lifted one of the sky blue coloured bird and showed me the most teenie weanie eggs I have ever seen. Every few days he would let me in to see what was happening to those eggs. One day he lifted the tiny eggs and let me put them to my ear and listen to the sound of whatever was in that egg chipping away. As I stood mouth wide open in awe I saw a crack appear on the powder coloured shell and gradually a tiny baldie creature force it's wat out of that now empty space.

I still don't know how Easter eggs came about but for me they are just the perfect symbol of new life and transformation. They have started off as something completely different to their end result. The struggle and suffering of that frail creature trapped and bound flourishing and growing with the light of day.

By Gerry Temple
copyright March 2008

[naked lilac]

. Children hunt for the eggs all around the house. Neighborhoods and organizations hold Easter egg hunts, and the child who finds the most eggs wins a prize.
The Easter Bunny is a rabbit-spirit. Long ago, he was called the "Easter Hare", hares and rabbits have frequent multiple births so they became a symbol of fertility. The custom of an Easter egg hunt began because children believed that hares laid eggs in the grass. The Romans believed that "All life comes from an egg." Christians consider eggs to be "the seed of life" and so they are symbolic of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Why we dye, or color, and decorate eggs is not certain. In ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and Persia eggs were dyed for spring festivals. In medieval Europe, beautifully decorated eggs were given as gifts.