Easter Icons and Estate Jewelry

Easter has hopped and skipped its way into this upcoming weekend. Families will gather in their Sunday's best with anticipation at its peak as children armed with baskets hunt their pastel egg bounty. Squeals of delight emanate as sugar pulses directly to the brain after devouring colorful jelly beans, fluffy marshmallow chicks, and cartoonish chocolate Easter bunnies.

The Easter holiday has transformed from Pagan roots to Christian throughout hundreds of years. During this metamorphosis, the symbolism of many Easter icons has remained the same with a focus on rebirth and prosperity.

The egg is central to modern-day Easter festivities especially the tradition of dying them every imaginable color. Our ancestors were not as mirthful and saw the egg as a tool with meaning. Pagans invoked the power of the egg in the belief that it symbolized rebirth and prosperity. Often it was used as an offering to the gods to will pregnancy and to ensure bountiful crops. Early Christians started the tradition of dying eggs around the thirteenth century, but they only used one pigment, red. This coloration was tied to the idea of Christ's blood and his sacrifice. Now, a once somber practice has grown into a whimsically charming annual pastime where creative tots mix hues together to masterfully embellish their edible art. However, we can imagine that early Christian eggs looked similar to our sanguine cabochon selection here at Wilson's Estate Jewelry.

Of course, there is the most recognizable Easter icon, the cross. Designers have painstakingly labored to render this relic poignantly. Several have immaculately encrusted it with sumptuous gems while others took the modest approach and depicted the cross in its simplest terms. The Christian meaning is always the same no matter what form is delivered, victory over death and everlasting salvation. Our selection can be found here.

Beyond religion, this time of year has been universally accepted as a time of resurgence as we do away with winter and embrace spring with eager faces. The color will explode forth whether it is flowers blooming or eggs nestled in the garden waiting to be discovered.