JUNIOR DOMINION

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 154, 27 March 1937, Page IX (Supplement)

JUNIOR DOMINION

Eggs Old And New Deer Boys and Girls. — Once upon a time small people who were given Easter eggs were quite content if they were just chocolate or candy eggs . . . but now the shops are full of the most exciting, round-shaped, tinsel-covered things, which, if you didn’t know it was Easter, you would never expect to be eggs! And your letters tell of exciting bunnies and chickens, eggy chocolate farmyards and eggy bunny-folk with long, floppy ears. They are so colourful and bright that each sweet shop has been like a rainbow-vendor’s store, popped down from the sky on an unexpected visit. Easter eggs arc among the oldest of Christian customs. The first Easter eggs were not Easter eggs as we know them-—'but were ordinary hens’ eggs, hard-boiled and then painted with watercolours". Some of these eggs arc still placed on English breakfast tables .. . and. once I had one at a farm place here. It.was tied with pink ribbon and was painted a bright blue. I was just a little afraid to eat it for fear the blue had gone through to the bright yellow yolk! The old custom was to paint them with quaint faces, hats and collars, so that they looked like Humpty-Dumpty or sonic other visitor from story-book land. There is the talc told of a German, princess, who was presented by one of her suitors with a huge iron egg. In her rage at such an insulting gift, she dashed it on the floor. What was her amazement, when the iron shell flew apart at the impact to discover a yolk of gold upon a white of crystal, and on opening the golden ball to find a crown of rubies! This in turn opened and inside was a beautiful bcthrothal ring of diamonds. The names of the prince and princess are shrouded in mystery, but they say that the iron covering can still be seen in Berlin.