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Easter is not just a time for eating chocolate eggs but it is the most important festival of the Christian church. It celebrates the resurrection of Christ on the third day after his crucifixion.

The date of Easter changes each year. Traditions include egg decorating and rolling, Easter egg hunts, making Easter bonnets and the Easter bunny. Not all Easter customs are Christian though, with eggs and bunnies being part of the overlap with Pagan spring festivals, so there is no excuse for anyone not to join in the fun!

Like Christmas though, Easter as we presently enjoy it is a combination Of Christian and pre-Christian traditions and customs.

Although Australians celebrate Easter during autumn, in the northern hemisphere, where many of the customs started, it occurs in spring. The word Easter is not a religious one but comes from an early word, eastre, meaning festival of spring.

According to legend, the tradition of decorating eggs started with the birth of Christ - the Virgin Mary is said to have dyed eggs red, yellow and green for her baby.

Other people believe decorated eggs and the Easter festivities developed in later times. One story is that the pagan goddess Eastre, meaning spring, gave her name to this time of year and her favourite animal was said to be the hare, the symbol of love, fertility and growth (as Easter occurs in springtime in the northern hemisphere).

In Germany and other parts of Europe some children grew up believing the hare lays Easter eggs so they make a special leaf soup to bring her into their gardens and to the nests they have made. But if the child has been naughty there will be no eggs in the nest, only droppings!

A special breed of fowl that originally came from South America lays eggs as pretty as Easter eggs. They are a blue-green colour, not white or brown like other fowls' eggs but unfortunately they don't have chocolate inside. The hen is called an Araucana.

Russian folk have given eggs as Easter gifts for hundreds of years. Wealthy people would exchange jewelled, crystal or porcelain painted eggs whilst the poor would give wooden eggs or decorated hens' eggs. The wooden eggs were often decorated with geometric patterns or even a scene depicting children at play.

We at Eco Bites wish you and your family a very happy, healthy, green, Eco and fun Easter.