ABSTRACT
Chinese, Chaldeans, Persians, Hindus, Egyptians, and Jews. The origin of the" Easter egg" is as old as the tradition that the world was created at Easter-time or in the spring-so old that the origin is lost beyond the memory of the childhood of the world. The actual custom of giving eggs as gifts at Easter can be traced from Europe to Persia, though the practice prevailed in Ancient Egypt and India and among the Jews. The Magian or Persian interpretation was an allusion to the" egg of the world," for the possession of which Ormuzd, the angel of Good, and Ahriman, the power of Evil, were to fight until the end of time and the consummation of all things. The Egyptian legend was very similar -Osiris enclosed in an egg two white pyramids, symbols of the good he wishes to confer upon mankind, but his wicked brother Typhon secretly hid in the egg twelve black pyramids, emblems of the evil he wished to wreak on mankind. Therefore, said the Egyptians, in this world good and evil are irrevocably mingled. Typhon, the personification of evil and destruction, lived in the sea, according to the Egyptians,
hence their reluctance to venture upon the water and the explanation of the fact that they never colonized.
