Resurrection Eggs

Easter time is here and chocolate eggs are flying off the supermarket shelves along with lots of other cash in merchandise. There’s even Easter Crackers now – and why not!? Easter is easily perceived by many as the sequel holiday season to Christmas. The commercialism seems to pick up every year.

Rather than cover the typical Easter material fanfare to do with bunnies and baby chicks, we thought that we’d cover something a little different – and educational.

Resurrection Eggs. These are sold in boxes of 12 plastic eggs inside a makeshift eggbox. The plastic eggs each contain a small object reflecting on different Bible chapters from Jesus’ story. The version showcased here is the original Family Life version. Other variants have spawned since the debut, but this seems to be the first draft.

This dozen of eggs is quite clever, especially the 12^th egg. Here’s the summary based on the hands on order I received (the images mix up the order):

1/ Blue Egg - Little Donkey. (Matthew 21:1-3, 6-8)
Donkeys have played various parts in the Bible whether talking or travelling. The content is a simple PVC donkey that does the job.

2/ Light Pink Egg - Silver Coins. (Matthew 26:14-16)
Basic currency of the era. 3 Die-Cast metal coins with Casears face sculpted on either side, bearing a feint resemblance to arcade tokens. A much better move than using plastic coins for toy money.

3/ Light Purple Egg – Cup. (Matthew 26:27-28)
Representation of the last supper, communion etc. This is a nicely sculpted goblet that looks like a Monopoly piece. Other versions of the set use a plastic cracker/biscuit instead.

4/ Orange Egg - Praying Hands. (Mark 14:32-34)
Bendy plastic mould of two hands stuck together.

5/ Green Egg - Leather Whip. (John  19:1)

Other variants have used a small cat n’ ninetails, but this original version uses a small leather lace with the ends tied together

6/ Yellow Egg - Crown of Thorns.  (Matthew 27:27-29)
A pewter crown with the thorns rounded and filed down for safety.

7/ Light Orange Egg - Nails on the Cross. (John 19:16b-18)
A stainless steel cross made up of 3 nails drawn together. Two objects rolled into one.

8/ Light Green Egg – Die. (John 19:23-24)

A simple dice representing the soldiers playing for pieces of Jesus’ robes

9/ Purple Egg – Spear (John 19:32-34)
Potential action figure accessory. A small PVC version of a spear used by a roman soldier.

10/ Light Blue Egg - Linen Cloth (27:57-60)
Small sheet of cotton used to represent the cloth Jesus was wrapped up in.

11/ Pink Egg – Stone (Matthew 28:2-4)
A simple washed pebble representing the boulder which sealed Jesus’ tomb . Rather than going for a toy mould someone from Family Life probably took a beach/aquarium trip and loaded up on pebbles. Can easily be replaced by a stone from the garden if lost in a toy battle..

12/ White Egg - Empty (Matthew 28:5-6)
Used to symbolise the empty tomb. This quite a clever move and is probably a subtle way to save on production costs.

Like a Nativity set would do for Christmas, this is like a summary of the Easter story with key elements and events condensed with. A model tomb with a large stone at the front just doesn’t sound on paper an attractive piece of Easter tat, and it’s been tried before. 

Resurrection Eggs are where its at for Easter tat. In Easter breaks to come there are bound to be better and higher quality reissues on a bigger scale.