Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are decorated eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tradition is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as chocolate. Eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility, and rebirth.

History

The practice of decorating eggshells is ancient, predating Christian traditions. Ostrich eggs with engraved decoration that are 60,000 years old have been found in Africa. Decorated ostrich eggs, and representations of ostrich eggs in gold and silver, were commonly placed in graves of the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians as early as 5,000 years ago.

The Christian custom of the Easter egg, can be traced as far back as the early Christians of Mesopotamia, who stained eggs red in memory of the blood of Christ. The Christian Church officially adopted the custom, regarding the eggs as a symbol of the resurrection. The Roman Ritual, the first edition of which was published in 1610 but which contains texts of much older date, has among the Easter Blessings of Food, along with those for lamb, bread, and new produce, the following blessing for eggs:

An Easter egg is an intentional inside joke, hidden message, or feature in an interactive work such as a computer program, video game or DVD menu screen. The name has been said to evoke the idea of a traditional Easter egg hunt.

According to game designer Warren Robinett, this traditional term was coined into the context of media by Atari personnel who were alerted to the presence of a secret message which had been hidden by Robinett in his already widely distributed game, Adventure. Released in 1979, Atari's Adventure contains the first video game Easter egg to have been discovered by its players; the hidden item is the name of the game's programmer, Warren Robinett. Robinett inserted his Easter egg late in the game's development in an attempt to gain some recognition for his work, as Atari then kept its programmers' names secret. In 2004, an earlier Easter egg was found in Video Whizball, a 1978 game for the Fairchild Channel F system, displaying programmer Bradley Reid-Selth's surname.