Easter Eggs and Chocolate

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Hi, I'm Christina.

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I'm from Prague.

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Hi, I'm Jen, and I'm from Canada.

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Hi, I'm Oladunji, and I'm from Nigeria.

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Hello, I'm Liki, and I live in Paris.

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Hi, I'm Brian, and I'm from New York.

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Welcome to Carbon Sessions, a podcast with

carbon conversations for every day, with

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everyone, from everywhere in the world.

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In our conversations, we share ideas,

perspectives, questions, and things we

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So don't be shy and join our Carbon

Sessions, because it's not too late.

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Hi, I'm Liki.

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Hi, I'm Kristina.

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Hi, I'm Jen.

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I think that this episode will

be aired on, uh, January 1st.

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on Good Friday, which is a week from now.

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And Good Friday is the

Friday just before Easter.

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Actually, it's Good Friday,

part of the Easter holiday.

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I mean, it's part of

the Easter celebration.

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And one thing about Easter celebration,

I think, is that a lot of people around

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the world eat a lot of chocolate.

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Right.

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This is very common in France.

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I know it's very common in the UK.

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I don't know if it is common

in your parts of the world.

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Absolutely.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Okay.

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So the whole world, it's a

lot of chocolates for Easter.

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I just wonder why, where is

this tradition coming from?

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Why do we eat?

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chocolate eggs for Easter.

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Do you have any idea?

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So Lent is the 40 days

traditionally, the 40 days before

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Easter, not counting Sundays.

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And in the Christian tradition, it

is and was a time of what they call

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repentance, which doesn't mean What

we think it means now, it means a

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turning back toward your source or

your holy or your God or your creator,

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whatever language you want to use.

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So it's a turning back to what's

important in life kind of thing.

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And what people used to do to symbolize

that is they used to, and some people

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still do, uh, they used to not have

things that were sweet or sugary or fat.

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So you've heard of Fat

Tuesday or Mardi Gras.

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Or, um, before Ash Wednesday, which is

the next day, which is also celebration

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the Tuesday, everyone ate pancakes.

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We call it pancake day in some

places because they were using up

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the fat and the sugar and the sweet

and getting it out of the house.

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And then the idea was that you

didn't have any of that for

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the 40 days, except on Sundays.

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And then Easter Sunday was a treat and

a celebration of new life and eggs.

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Symbolize new life, right?

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Um, and chocolate and sweets and

feasting, um, because you couldn't

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do that all of the time before.

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So that's kind of where it started,

um, as far as the chocolate.

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And then of course it got commercialized.

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So instead of just having

pancakes and things, it became

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tradition to have chocolate.

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Oh, okay.

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Because I had never version of

the story, which is not related to

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chocolate itself, but to the eggs.

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And, um, and because you know,

all the fasting, during lunch,

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uh, but chicken, not chicken

hand, keep lay, keep laying eggs.

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And, um, and because of

fasting eggs cannot be eaten.

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So what people used to do is to boil them.

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And so they end up at the.

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end of the fasting

period with lots of eggs.

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And so they need to make it,

make the eggs attractive.

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So they started painting it.

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And so the tradition started

with real eggs that have been

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accumulated during lent period.

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So that's my, my take on

this, um, on this thing.

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Yep.

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And that could be as well.

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I mean, this is all over the world.

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So it, um, it, you know, where,

where the egg itself began,

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um, the decorating of it.

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And I think that predates in some

parts of the world that completely

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predates the Christian story.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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As do many of the symbols,

many, many of the symbols.

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Borrowed, co opted, taken,

re imagined, and used.

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So what about your take

on the story, Christina?

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Yeah, I, um, I love the pagan

traditions, and I found out That

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the oldest painted egg they, um,

discovered is 2, 300 years old.

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Isn't it amazing?

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Um, so it's not only, uh, Some people

look at it that, uh, Egyptians and Romans

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had a tradition of painting eggs for,

because it was symbol of fertility, but

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also I found out Persians did that too.

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And, um, so it, uh, I'm really

excited about going back to nature.

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And thinking about it that way, in

old Slavic and Celtic times, that

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eggs had meaning of fertility.

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And so the spring, and uh,

coming to, growing everything.

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And yes, chickens are

starting to lay a lot of eggs.

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Oh, by the way, eggs last.

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without refrigeration really long time.

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I know we have chickens, so we try to

keep them out and it's over two months.

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Isn't it amazing?

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I didn't know that.

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And they really, uh, When they're not

washed, when they're capped in, uh,

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the same, not removing all the poop and

dirty things from the eggs, but they

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must have some kind of cover on the shell

that, um, is, uh, protecting the inside

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and they can last really long time.

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So, yeah.

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So I'm really excited and another

symbols because so not only they

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color the eggs different colors Like

for example, the red is colored for

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protection and also symbolizes love

but also and I think Persians did black

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eggs and Also, they write draw symbols

on it And especially in Czech Republic,

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they, uh, decorate eggs many colors

and with wax and different colors.

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And in, um, original, all the

symbols were very specific.

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And the cross is also pre Christian.

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They, it symbolized the horizontal

line, symbolized people, and the

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vertical line symbolized nature,

uh, the things unseen, spiritual.

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Part and crossing them together

meant bringing those two pieces

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together and connecting everything.

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So I thought that was really sweet.

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I like that.

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So yeah, that's, I like that.

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That's until the Romans took it over.

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Turned it into a torture instrument,

but yes, I like the Japanese

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much better, much, much better.

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Yeah, so these symbols showed up in old,

uh, digs and, uh, different, and I was

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really surprised when I found out the

oldest painted X is 2, 300 years old.

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But they say, that's amazing.

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And some of them are art.

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They're just art.

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Yeah.

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Beautiful.

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And I think I heard they're guessing

that the eldest, oldest, all this

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traditional dates, even 5, 000 years ago.

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So I'm not sure if they found specific

eggs, but they definitely found

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some, um, drawings or something.

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So the guess is it's not official,

but so I love that we're regenerating.

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We're learning so much.

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We're learning so much from you and

we're learning so much every day.

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Because all we do today is to eat

chocolate eggs because it's been widely

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commercialized now, all across the world.

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, but recently I've read that the price

of cocoa has increased, therefore

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the price of chocolate will increase.

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And all that it's because of El Nino.

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Yeah, what's going on?

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Chocolate is made of cocoa

and cocoa beans grow.

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Most of cocoa beans grow in West Africa.

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, um, because El Nino created change

of weather pattern, there's less,

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there's less rain in, um, in Western

Africa, and therefore the, there's

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less cocoa produced, basically.

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, uh, this is the reason behind, uh,

why , chocolate's price will increase.

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I wonder with eggs, uh, chocolate eggs,

that The moment people did not have

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chickens anymore, uh, at home and moved

into the cities, there were less eggs.

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So they needed, they wanted the symbol,

but they were not enough eggs, so

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I wondered that's why they replaced

the regular eggs with chocolate eggs.

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I would, yeah, I'm curious how it shifted

from regular eggs to chocolate eggs.

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And I think it's commercial as, you know,

the commercialism, I mean, it's kind of

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like how, you know, Christmas and, uh,

has just blown up into, uh, something

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much, much bigger than it used to be.

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It used to be amazing to have an orange,

because you couldn't get oranges at

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that time of year and that used to

be a treat, or a stick of candy was a

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treat, and people couldn't get those

things regularly, they couldn't afford

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them, they weren't available, etc.

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And, um, you know, the commercialization

of, of holidays, continues to happen.

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And Easter is, is.

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You know, unfortunately the same, right?

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It's, it's about gifts and

new outfits and chocolate.

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And, um, I mean, there's fun,

there's, there's wonderful activities.

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People have a lot of fun hunting for eggs

and I don't know where that tradition

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came from, but it's lots of fun.

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Um, but yeah, the chocolate and,

and often the chocolate that's

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sold isn't even good chocolate.

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Is it, it's chocolate that's, um,

Full of other things, wax and other

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things that shouldn't be in chocolate.

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Leaky, you're the connoisseur.

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What kind of chocolate eggs do you like?

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No, I eat chocolate bars.

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I don't eat chocolate.

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I mean, except when it's come

from, um, chocolatier, but, uh, I

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don't buy supermarket chocolates.

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Yeah, it is.

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I think it's, uh, really interesting

how to, I, to taste the other

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chocolates and then you, it's hard

to go back to the cheap chocolate.

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So I hope everybody will try at

least tiny, tiny, little tiny egg,

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chocolate egg or chocolate bunny from

the little store on your corner, some

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chocolatier who makes it themselves

and see the difference and support

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the local instead of the big industry.

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And fair trade as well, because

there's so much horror that goes

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on with chocolate production.

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So if it can be fair trade chocolate

that, like you say, is made in

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small amounts, when it's really good

chocolate, we all want it, right?

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Yeah.

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That's the thing about when you

said, Jen, about the, we need just a

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little bit, it is so satisfying, just

one bite of really good chocolate.

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Compare when there was some chocolate

bar with cheap chocolate, it's like,

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Oh, I want at least three more.

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Well, another thing about it is that

if you're purchasing something from

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a local chocolate maker, you are, you

are saving the carbon footprint, right?

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Because you're buying it from someone

nearby, who's making it, it's not being

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shipped or trucked from who knows where.

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And you have, uh, less of a footprint

if you're purchasing from someone

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who's actually making it right where

you're, where you are, I think I'm

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going to get my, um, uh, grandson and

whoever, whichever kid is here, some,

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little, little tiny chocolate bunnies.

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They're about this big.

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They're really tiny,

but they're really good.

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Fair trade, vegan, pure, delicious.

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Um, and it's more expensive, but

Rather than getting them a whole

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bunch of stuff, I'm just going

to get them a little chocolate.

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That's nice.

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It's a thought that counts.

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Yeah.

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And, uh, you know, don't give your

kids too much sweets and treats.

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It's, it's not healthy anyway.

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I'll give him a carrot too.

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How's that?

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He likes carrots.

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Yeah, I think it's beautiful to enjoy the

spring weather and all the flowers are

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coming out and, uh, trees are blooming

and maybe go back to, uh, the pagans

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times to look at the symbols and draw the

eggs and Now, instead of chocolate, we

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could go back to the, to my explanation

of why we eat chocolate Egg for Easter

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is to go back to the eggs to boil them

and to decorate them could be decorated

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by painting them, but boil them first

by painting them or, um, Oh, uh, call

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color them with natural dyes and um,

and you can do beautiful things with

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natural dyes, with like onion pills

with bit roots pill with lot of pills.

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So , this is what I wanted to say.

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. We used to do that and then put

them in an egg carton in the fridge.

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And then when we went to school,

we would have colorful eggs.

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. Yes.

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In our lunches.

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And so you can hide them in the garden.

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Yeah.

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And then Andre Spring

instead of buying chocolate.

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Yeah.

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Well, also, Todd, you know, raw eggs,

you can take the egg, the raw egg, and

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make little hole in the top and the

bottom, and blow the egg outside of the

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shell, and then you can decorate it, and

hang it somewhere, and have it forever.

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It's easier said than done, though.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It's hard work.

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It is hard work.

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And they're very delicate, but it's fun.

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Beautiful.

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Well, have a wonderful weekend.

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No matter what you celebrate.

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Whether you're eating

chocolate or eggs or carrots.

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Enjoy your weekend.

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Enjoy the Easter holidays.

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