The egg appears as a symbol in the theogonies of many people, creating a correspondence between cultures very distant from each other and without any starting point being known. Most of these cosmogonic myths, imagine the universe originated by an egg where in its interior lies the primordial matter from which all manifestation develops. A scholastic question like “which one was the first: the chicken or the egg”, does not manifest anything else that, the duality is within the unit. In ancient Greece, the followers of the Orphic mystery religion, believed that Phanes, the first androgynous progenitor, had been born from the Cosmic egg, from which the gods and later men descended. Alchemy refers to the philosophical egg as the generator of life that is inside the athanor, and in philosophical alchemy, the athanor resides inside each one of us. The Easter egg is a pre-Christian tradition that suggests the idea of resurrection or renewal; hence its symbolic force alluding to the awakening of nature in spring, when the sun is at its highest point on the horizon. One of these ancient Easter rituals, consisted of painting the eggs with certain symbols and making them roll on the ground to promote an abundant harvest and the renewal of all the vegetation. In Germanic countries this tradition developed, and they decided to make the eggs of a highly decorated chocolate and giving them as a present to people and family members to wish them health and abundance. Towards the 18th century in Orthodox Russia, the gift of the Easter egg became general, especially in aristocratic circles where they were made of gold, silver or delicate porcelain, and always dedicated to exhibit the social position of the one who offered them. A remarkable example of these eggs can be seen in the town of Ordino in Andorra. On the Corpus Christi festival here in Catalonia, we have a tradition that seems to date back to the 17th century and that consists of laying an empty egg on the spout of a fountain, this tradition originating in Barcelona, does not seem to have any specific symbolism other than an entertainment and visual show
THE EGG
RVM