Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Eggs

Because eggs embody the essence of life, people from ancient times to the modern day have surrounded them with magical beliefs, endowing them with the power not only to create life but to prophesy the future.

Eggs symbolize birth and are believed to ensure fertility. They also symbolize rebirth, and thus long life and even immortality. Eggs represent life in its various stages of development, encompassing the mystery and magic of creation.

Creation myths commonly describe how the universe was hatched from an egg, often laid by some mythical water bird swimming in the primordial waters. Early myth makers viewed both the sun and the egg as the source of all life; the round, yellow yolk even symbolized the sun. Clearly, eggs had great symbolic potential.

In Europe of pagan and Christian times, eggs symbolized life and resurrection. Human beings have long consumed eggs of all sorts--of hens, ducks, geese, partridges, pigeons, pheasants, ostriches, peacocks, and other bird species.In legends, fairies consumed eggs of mythical birds such as the phoenix. People ate eggs for a variety of reasons. Some sought to absorb their magical properties by eating them. Others ate them to ensure fertility. In the Slavonic and Germanic lands, people also smeared their hoes with eggs, in the hope of transferring the eggs' fertility to the soil.

In Iran, brides and grooms exchange eggs. In 17th century France, a bride broke an egg when she first entered her new home. The perception of eggs as symbols of fertility and embodiments of life force compelled people of certain cultures not only to shun them as food but to avoid destroying them at all costs. Some people avoided eating eggs laid by their tribal totems; certain groups of aborigines in Australia believed they descended from the emu, so they placed strict taboos on eating eggs of these ancestral birds.

Though people frequently forbade the eating of eggs, eggs were often used for divining purposes. Their widespread use in divination likely stemmed from the belief that they symbolized life--particularly life in the future. The Chinese and certain tribal groups in southern Asia used the eggs of chickens or ducks to divine the future. One method involved painting the eggs, boiling them, and reading the patterns in their cracks. Another method involved tossing the eggs and divining the future with eggs, a process known as oomancy.

The concept of eggs as life symbols went hand in hand with the concept of eggs as emblems of immortality, and particularly the resurrection of Christ, who rose from a sealed tomb just as a bird breaks through an eggshell. The Jews traditionally serve eggs at Passover as a symbol of sacrifice and rebirth.

Resource: Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, by Tamra Andrews

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