Some Tasty Tidbits of
Easter Trivia
Did you know…
- More than half of all Americans traditionally celebrate Easter by attending some sort of church service.
- More Americans buy candy at Easter than at any other time of the year, including Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day.
These are just two Easter trivia facts you can use to impress your friends and family this holiday. Here’s more:
Making a Peep
It took the Rodda Candy Company 27 hours to make a single marshmallow Peep in 1953. Back then, each chick was hand made with a pastry tube. Today, automation has reduced the process to six minutes.
For almost 20 years, Peeps have been America’s most popular non-chocolate Easter candy. In fact, every year, the Pennsylvania-based candy company makes enough Peeps to circle the Earth twice.
About Bunnies and Eggs…
The character of the Easter Bunny may have originated as part of a medieval festival honoring Eostre, the Germanic goddess of dawn, whose sacred symbols were the hare and the egg – both of which represent fertility and rebirth.
Medieval Christian missionaries often chose to celebrate their own holy days at the same times as pagan festivals to encourage conversion. An easy correlation was drawn between pagan celebration of rebirth and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Indeed, records indicate that early Christians in Mesopotamia were the first to dye Easter eggs – red, to represent the blood of Jesus.
…and Jelly Beans
Jelly beans first became popular during the Civil War, when a Boston confectioner urged loyalists to send his jelly beans to Union Army soldiers. But the beans weren’t associated with Eastertime until sometime in the 1930’s (possibly because of their egg-shape appearance).
Today, these sugary little pellets are popular year round. In 2019 alone, Americans consumed enough jelly beans to circle the globe – three times.
The Easter Bilby?
For decades, conservation groups Down Under have promoted the “Easter Bilby” as an alternative to the Easter Bunny. The bilby is a cute, furry, burrowing marsupial with rabbit-like ears whose native Australian habitat is being threatened (ironically, by rabbits).
To increase awareness of this threat, the Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia began the Easter Bilby campaign in 1991.
Candy manufacturers were quick to jump on the bandwagon and began including chocolate bilbies in their Easter products for the Australian market. Today, chocolate makers still distribute bilbies along with their traditional chocolate bunnies. And a portion of the sales is donated to bilby conservation.
Sources:
Featured Image: Adobe, License Granted
Mental Floss
Swiss Colony
Scancinavia Standard
National Geographic