Celebrating Easter Without Eggs

What better way to celebrate spring, rebirth, and renewal than by choosing objects that don’t just represent life and hope—but truly embody them?

With the cost of chicken’s eggs skyrocketing due to the ongoing bird flu outbreak and the “culling” (killing) of millions of birds, it is the perfect opportunity to reflect on how we can celebrate the meaning of spring and Easter by choosing objects that don’t just represent life and hope—but truly embody them. We can honor our values of sustainability and compassion while adhering to tradition.

Here’s how.

All of the articles in this series can be found here: The Food History of Easter and Passover—Through a Plant-Based Lens

The Symbolism of the Egg

Even after being vegan for 26 years—and witnessing a surge in plant-based eating and growing awareness around animal issues—I still encounter people who assume that celebrating Easter without chicken’s eggs is somehow inauthentic—as if the meaning of the holiday hinges on an animal product rather than the values it's meant to represent.

At the heart of this reaction is a common misconception: that in honoring our values, we must forgo our traditions—as if the two are mutually exclusive. But when we look more closely, we see that the food-related rituals we revere often represent something much deeper than the specific products themselves.

Take the egg.

The egg remains our culture’s quintessential symbol of spring, life, birth, and renewal. And that’s the point: the egg is a symbol of these things. What’s more important than the symbol is the meaning behind the symbol—in the case of the spring holidays: rebirth, regeneration, hope, and life. Eggs signify the hope that life follows death, that spring follows winter, that hope follows despair.

The egg is the symbol of these ideas, but we have come to put more weight on the symbol rather than on its meaning. Antithetically—and tragically—for the hens forced to produce these eggs, there is no life. There is no hope. Over 300 million birds are confined by the egg industry at any given time, and like all females (including humans), the reproductive cycles of hens slow down over time, and eventually hens stop producing eggs.

No longer “valuable” to the egg industry, all unproductive hens are sold to the meat industry and are killed to be used for lower-grade products such as canned soup or frozen pot pies. Most birds in operations labeled “humane” are still confined and crowded indoors, many are debeaked, and most come from the same hatcheries that kill over 250 million newly hatched male chicks each year in ways that make horror movies seem like romantic comedies.

This is all very different from what we envision Easter to be about, but we can still experience the meaning of this holiday without compromising our values.

Meaning Over Form

When I reflect on the Easter egg hunts I loved as a child, it wasn’t about the eggs themselves—it was about the sense of community, the joy of being with friends and family, and the excitement of a shared quest to find something hidden just for us. That magic isn’t diminished simply because animal products aren’t involved. (In fact, it’s enhanced because no one is harmed.)

We can still use the egg as a symbol of life, birth, and hope—but instead of eggs from chickens, we can:

• Use refillable plastic eggs to fill with sweets, trinkets, seeds, or messages and hide them at Easter egg hunts

• Paint wooden or ceramic eggs for a reusable, traditional touch

• Decorate paper eggs using construction paper and markers or paints—perfect for garlands, window displays, or indoor egg hunts

  

• Create paper mâché eggs, which are durable, lightweight, and fun to decorate (bonus: turn them into tulip egg flowers with crepe paper and floral wire)

• Dye potatoes as a budget-friendly, food-safe alternative that mimics the shape of traditional eggs

• Collect and paint egg-shaped rocks from outside for a rustic, nature-inspired craft that connects kids and adults with the outdoors

An even more consistent—and compassionate—symbol for spring would be a flower bulb, tree seedling, or wildflower seeds (ideally those native to your region). In fact, they’re more than just symbols—they truly hold (and deliver!) the promise of a flower or a tree! They can be tucked into plastic eggs or hidden like treasures in an egg hunt, then sown or planted afterward—continuing the celebration in a way that gives back to the earth, to pollinators, and to future seasons.

What better way for children to understand the processes of nature—that with tenderness, attention, and water, something beautiful and life-giving can emerge?

Rethinking Tradition

Our unquestioned attachment to traditions, customs, and habits can prevent us from seeing whether they still serve us—or anyone else. It reminds me of Shirley Jackson’s haunting 1948 short story The Lottery, about the annual selection of a sacrificial victim in a small American town. In it, Jackson sheds light on humanity’s tendency to cling blindly to meaningless rituals and participate in pointless violence.

In the story, one of the townspeople hears about a neighboring village that has given up the empty, violent ritual and protests, “But there’s always been a lottery”—as if the mere fact that something has always been done is reason enough to keep doing it.

We justify our use of animals in the same circular way: “We’ve always eaten animals,” we say, as if that alone is reason enough to keep doing so. But just because we’ve always done something doesn’t mean we always have to.

Once we know better, we can make new choices—better choices. More compassionate choices. That’s what it means to be human. That’s what it means to grow. That’s what it means to evolve.

With a little creativity and a lot of sensitivity, we’ll find that we can indeed adhere to traditions while honoring our values. We need not sacrifice one for the other.

And may it be so.

Wishing you a joyful Easter, a hopeful spring, and a compassionate life.

All of the articles and recipes in this series are here: The Food History of Easter and Passover—Through a Plant-Based Lens. Thanks for reading and sharing!

Also in this series:

• The Meatless History of Lent: The tradition of abstaining from animal products during the 40 days before Easter

• Homemade Soft Pretzels: Delicious and historical!

• Tempura: The Plant-Based Origins of Japan's Favorite Fried Dish: What Lent, Language, and Latin Have to Do with Tempura

• Carnival: A Meat-Free Tradition: the surprising origin of the word and its historic connection to meat

• How a Plant-Based Seder Celebrates the True Meaning of Passover

• The Sacred History of Pretzels: The Plant-Based Origins of Everyone's Favorite Snack

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