Overview
- Easter gift customs trace to the egg as a spring symbol of new life that long predates Christianity, according to the Catholic Church.
- Medieval Lent rules barred eating eggs, so households saved and cooked them, then decorated and exchanged them at Easter as the practice moved from royal courts to families.
- Catholic bells fall silent from Holy Thursday to Easter, and a popular legend says they fly to Rome for blessing and return with eggs and sweets that children hunt.
- Regional folklore explains the delivery image, with a rabbit in Germany, a hare in Alsace and the United States, and bells as the bringers in many Catholic areas.
- Sources differ on timing of the chocolate turn, with TF1 Info citing 18th‑century German and Alsatian merchants, while Le Parisien and France Inter point to 19th‑century industrial chocolatiers making the custom widespread.