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Today, I’m going to share 36 Easter facts that you probably don’t know. I know that I didn’t know them. Some of these facts are based in or around Christianity. Others are just fun facts to know.
Are you ready to learn some Easter facts?
Fast Fun Easter Facts
- Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ after His crucifixion.
- Easter is the oldest Christian holiday.
- Every year, Americans spend more than $1.9 billion on Easter candy. That’s only second to Halloween.
- Right at 70% of all the Easter candy purchased is chocolate.
- Around 76% of Americans think that chocolate bunnies’ ears should be eaten first.
- Egg dyes used to be made from natural materials like onion peels, juices, tree bark, and flower petals.
- The first story of a rabbit (later to be called the “Easter Bunny”) hiding eggs in a garden was published in 1680.
- Easter is always on Sunday. It is the culmination of a 40-day period of fasting called Lent.
- The Holy Week is the week leading up to Easter, and it starts on Palm Sunday. It also includes Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Then it ends on Easter Sunday.
- In 1878, the White House Easter Egg Roll began. Every President and his family have celebrated it, except in 2020 and 2021 (for obvious reasons).
- Easter Sunday is on a different date every year.
- Easter signals the official beginning of spring because it is celebrated on the Sunday after the full moon of March 21st–the Spring Equinox. (Note: This is why Easter is a different date every year.)
- In Sweden and Finland, children dress up as witches and go door-to-door saying blessings for the houses. They receive chocolate eggs in return.
- Easter Island was discovered on Easter Sunday. Originally, it was called Rapa Nui by the people who were already living there. However, Jacob Roggeveen arrived there on Easter Sunday in 1772, and he called it Easter Island. Most of the English-speaking world calls it Easter Island, but its real name is Rapa Nui.
- Every year, thousands of people trek to Vatican City to see and hear the Pope on Easter.
- In Hungary, women dress up in traditional garb on Easter and have water sprinkled on them.
- In Britain, 80-90 million chocolate eggs are eaten every year.
- The legend of the Easter Bunny began in Germany.
- Over 1.5 million Cadbury Creme Eggs are made daily. That’s more than 500 million a year. If you stacked them one on top of the other, they would be 10 times taller than Mount Everest.
- The world’s largest Easter egg is in Vegreville, Alberta, Canada. It stands 31’ tall and 18’ wide. Weighing in at around 5,000 lbs, it took around 12,000 hours to complete, and 3,500 pieces of aluminum were used.
- Pretzels used to be associated with Easter because they resembled arms crossed in prayer.
- In Germany, it’s illegal to dance in public on Good Friday.
- Easter baskets symbolize birds’ nests and new life.
- Easter lilies are a relatively new tradition in the United States. We did not pick up on using the flower for Easter until after World War I.
- In the US, ham is a traditional Easter dish because, in the old days, the ham was cured during the winter months and was ready to eat in the spring.
- We wear new clothes on Easter because an old superstition said that doing so would bring the wearer good luck for the rest of the year.
- The largest Easter egg hunt ever was held in Florida in 2007. There were 9,753 children looking for 501,000 eggs.
- Easter bonnets became a tradition after Irving Berlin’s 1933 hit song “Easter Parade.”
- Good Friday is not a national holiday, but some states recognize it as a state holiday.
- The world’s tallest Easter egg is 34’ 1.05” and weighs 15,873 lbs.
- Over 50% of Americans do not want hollow or solid chocolate Easter bunnies. They prefer that they are filled with peanut butter, chocolate ganache, or caramel.
- Easter chocolate is most likely to be milk chocolate. Only 15% of Americans said they wanted dark chocolate for Easter.
- In the US, 16 billion jelly beans are made every year.
- Around 5.5 million Peeps are made daily. In the US alone, more than 600 million are consumed yearly.
- The maximum storage time for milk chocolate is 8-12 months. For dark chocolate, it is about 24 months. However, this is assuming you are keeping it in a cool, dry, and dark place. If not, it won’t last that long. (Of course, who’s keeping their chocolate for a year?)
- The largest chocolate Easter bunny in the Guinness Book of World Records is 12 feet tall and weighs 6,635 lbs.
Conclusion
What other Easter facts do you know? Share them in the comments. I love learning new things.
Which of these Easter facts was new to you? Or, did you know all of them already?
I hope you got something new out of these facts; I know I did.