Have you ever wondered why we celebrate Easter with Easter eggs? Eggs are a symbol of rebirth and new life, which fit well within the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection among Christians. It became common to decorate eggs and give them as gifts as part of Easter celebrations.

Hard boiling and decorating eggs is a fun activity to do at Easter time. You can give them away, display them in a centrepiece, or of course, eat them! There are different ways to decorate eggs. Here are a few to get you started!

Dyed eggs

If you’d like to turn your egg a particular colour, here are some natural dye options to make sure they’re still safe to eat.

Ingredients:

• Natural colourant*
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1L water
• Desired number of hard-boiled eggs

*Natural colourants:

Pink: 4 cups beetroot, roughly chopped

Yellow: 4 tablespoons ground turmeric

Green: 6 cups spinach, roughly chopped, plus 1 tablespoon turmeric

Brown: 2 tablespoons instant coffee (for this colour you will not need to heat the liquid; instead, just mix the ingredients together)

Blue: 4 cups purple cabbage leaves, roughly chopped

Directions:

Combine the colourant, vinegar, salt and water and bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes; strain and set the liquid aside. Once the liquid has cooled, dip the hard-boiled eggs in the liquid. Leave them in for at least 30 minutes, or overnight if you want a stronger colour.

For an extra step, draw patterns on your hard boiled eggs with wax crayons. The parts of the eggs that you draw on will not dye, so the egg will come out with fun patterns all over it!

Sharpie eggs

Colouring eggs with sharpies is very simple. All you need to do is hard boil your selected number of eggs, gather a range of coloured sharpies (pastel colours work well for Easter), and then get creative! Anything from a beautifully-drawn animal to a special message in toddler’s scribble will look great.

Natural brown eggs

For a more natural look, buy a non-toxic white paint pen and draw patterns on hard boiled eggs. This is a simple but beautiful way to present your eggs, with the bonus of being relatively quick to prepare!