EASTER EGGS.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 101, 9 April 1907, Page 3

EASTER EGGS.

Easter eggs are still popular. Unlike many ether eld customs, the practice of sending artificial eggs, either made of or containing confectionery, to friends nt Easter-time is rather increasing than waning. Sweetmeats, it seems, are looked upon less as a luxury than formerly, while sugar, their principal ingredient, is a commodity which is very cheap. Gradually, too, the tiado has been getting more and more into the hands of bisr wholesale firms who can afford to sell at prices against which that fast-disappearing class, the old-fashioned sugar boiler, cannot compete. To choose an Easter egg, however, is becoming a bewildering matter. Year by year the. range of choipe grows wider. At present chocolate eggs are pre-eminent m public favor, and it is a noteworthy point that the Easter egg trade is now practically m the hands of chocolate manufacturers. Enamelled wooden eggs, however, and those made of papier-mache are very popular, while marzipan eggs also find purchasers. But for the old forms, the gum-paste, the lozengepaste, and the piped eggs, there is little demand, although they are still made m small quantities. — Wide Range of Price— Tlio range of price is as wide as the range of choice. The ragged youngster of an East End gutter can purchase for a halfpenny an egg perhaps not quite so big but certainly as wholesome as that which the pampered darling of a West End nursery is given. In fact, the wholesomeness of the confectionery made by English firms is one of the most interesting features of a trade m which competition is extraordinarily keen. In some cases the Easter "egg" takes a form which even the most intelligent hen might pardonably fail to recognise. Hares and rabbits are growing m popularity, and even the insidious motor car has appeared where formerly the utmost fantasy was a wren's nest, to the furnishing of wliich a starling, a chaffinch, and a thrush had each contributed. But the laws of Nature are disregarded even more flagrantly m regard to the contents. They have ceased to be edible, or, at any rate, become most indigestible, as those who have sampled skipping-ropes, tee-to-tums, and other such toys will agree. This latitude must be attributed to the desire for novelty. The publio always looks for something new, and the big wholesale firms regularly send agents each year to Nuremburg and other places m Germany whereMoy fairs are held, that they may see what exhibits can be adapted to this trade. Practically all tlie cases of enamelled wood and papier-mache are made m Germany, although the contents are of English manufacture. It ' is probable that the custom of giving friends, especially juvenile friends, these gifts at Easter came to us from Germany, and it is the more curious that the French poissous d'Avril have never become popular m tliis country. To Parisians the 'custom sometimes has a deeper significance; the Easter fish is the gift to a child, but the Easter egg is the love token of the young man. The gilded youth, indeed, regard it as a golden opportunity to present to their stage favorites eggs containing jewellery and rings. —Varying Significance. — Probably there are few people to-day who are aware that the* origin of this custom is a religious one. Yet suoh ignorance is pardonable, for there is little trace left of the old significance by whioh they represented' the belief m the Resurrection, as the phraseology of the Benediction used m Christian festivities showed. To other nations of different faiths the custom, which is a world-wide one, originally was significant of some particular festival at this time of the year. The Persians commemorate their solar new year, the Jews the Passover, tbe Greek Church the Pasga, and the Roman Catholic , Church the Pascha. In Persia the custom was known over two hundred yeads ago, while the contemporary "feast of Paque" with a distribution of eggs is recorded by an eye-witness m Moscow. In Saxony at one time a saying was current that' "the Easter hare brings the Easter egg," which probably accounts for thp permissibility of the hare to-day. In England' the observance of the custom has been traced back to the thirteenth century, and one writer of the last century mentions an entry m the roll of the household of Edward I. to the effect that eighteenpence were expended for 400 eggs as gifts at Easter. In the provinces many counties had their own particular love of peculiarities m the observance of the custom, but these have to a certain measure died out m the lapse of years.— ' Standard.'