
Easter Sunday is only a few hops away, and while you are coloring eggs, eating chocolate bunnies and searching your home for hidden treats, here are some facts to share with your family and friends.
- Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ three days after his death. It is the oldest Christian holiday and the most important day of the church year.
- Christians consider Easter eggs to symbolize joy and celebration, new life and resurrection.
- Households spend $131 on Easter each year, $14.7 billion in total.
- After Halloween, Easter is the biggest candy consuming holiday. 120 million pounds of candy are bought each year, enough to fill four dump trucks.
- 90 million chocolate bunnies, 91.4 billion eggs and 700 million peeps are produced each year in the United States.
- 76% of people eat the ears on chocolate bunnies first.
- Americans consume over 16 million jellybeans on Easter, enough to circle the globe three times over.
- Half of the states in the United States have banned the practice of dyeing chicks for Easter. However, Florida recently overturned the 45-year-old law of preventing the dyeing of animals, which will come into effect July 1st.
- When coloring Easter eggs, it is recommended to use food grade dyes, commercial egg dyes, fruit-drink powders or liquid food coloring.
- To help Americans in need, egg farmers across the country are donating more than 11 million eggs to food banks across the nation.
- The White House hosts an Easter Egg Roll on the front lawn each year. This tradition was started by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878.