Easter Trivia

Found this little sweetie at Kohl's. Yes, the day they thought I was 62. So in its honor I thought I'd pass along a little trivia.

Easter this year is: Sunday March 23, 2008
As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox which is March 20.
This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar. The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228. The last time it was this early was 1913 so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that, but I don't think I have any readers that old.
Eggs are a symbol of the new life that returns to nature at Easter Time. The custom of exchanging eggs began long before Easter was celebrated. It was a custom of the Egyptians and the Persians. They exchanged eggs decorated in Spring colors. They believed Earth hatched from an egg. Early Christians used red colored eggs to symbolize the Resurrection.
In the 1800's, candied eggs were made. They were open on one end and a scene was put inside. They were used as table centerpieces. My mom made sugar eggs for my kids when they were little. We kept them for years, but we no longer have them. After all, they were only made of sugar.
The top four candy holidays are Halloween (nearly $2 billion), Easter ($1.9 billion), Christmas ($1.4 billion) and Valentine's Day (just over $1 billion).
Ninety million chocolate Easter bunnies are produced each year.
According to 76% of Americans, chocolate bunnies should be eaten ears first. Five percent said bunnies should be eaten feet first, while 4% favored eating the tail first. Adults prefer milk chocolate (65%), to dark chocolate (27%).
Each Easter season, Americans buy more than 700 million Marshmallow Peeps, shaped like chicks, as well as Marshmallow Bunnies and Marshmallow Eggs, making them the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy. As many as 4.2 million Marshmallow Peeps, bunnies, and other shapes can be made each day. In 1953, it took 27 hours to create a Marshmallow Peep. Today it takes six minutes. Yellow Peeps are the most popular, followed by pink, lavender, blue, and white.
Americans consume 16 billion jellybeans at Easter, many of them hidden in baskets. If all the Easter jellybeans were lined end to end, they would circle the globe nearly three times. Jellybeans did not become an Easter tradition until the 1930s. 70% of kids aged 6–11 say they prefer to eat Easter jellybeans one at a time, while 23% report eating several at once. Boys (29%) were more apt to eat a handful than girls (18%). Children indicate their favorite Easter jellybean flavors are cherry (20%), strawberry (12%), grape (10%), lime (7%), and blueberry (6%). I guess I'm not a kid (see top of this post for what others think my age is) because my favorite color of jellybean is BLACK!
Now you know all about Easter, other than the obvious, the reason we celebrate is because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for that every day of my life.