Hand Painted Floral Egg

The Egg

Just like the wedding band, with no beginning and no end, the oval egg has been an important part of wedding rituals for centuries. The egg is believed in many cultures to be a symbol of new beginnings, growth, protection, and long life and eggs in various forms have been presented to newlyweds worldwide to represent the couple's rebirth into a new life. An Iranian custom adorns the wedding table with small bowls of spices and herbs surrounding eggs and nuts to bless the couple with a large family. Malaysians have been known to give elaborately decorated hard-boiled eggs to each guest at the ceremony to symbolize fertility. In Morocco an egg tied into a kerchief is broken against the bride's forehead as part of a purity ritual.

Because they are such powerful tokens of new life and potential, eggs are one of the symbols of the vernal equinox, which marks the beginning of spring. This is also the day of the year that American urban legend has it you can most easily balance an egg (sorry to blow up all the forthcoming Facebook pics of magically balancing eggs on March 20th, but with the right egg, egg balancing can be done just as easily throughout the year and has no connection to astronomical phenomena).