The myriad of breads decorated with dyed eggs stacked in heaps at the entrance to bakeries in Jerusalem's Old City during Easter is a delightful sight indeed.
Easter, the Christian "Feast of Feasts" commemorating Jesus' resurrection, is celebrated after forty days of inner contemplation and fasting, concluding with "Holy Week." The joy accompanying Jesus' reappearance is expressed in the baking of decorated breads such as those displayed here. The round shape of the egg symbolizes the notion of the cycle, and red is the color of life. Breads like these are distributed freely on Easter Day at the Catholic Patriarchate in Jerusalem. Other churches also distribute bread to the public at Easter, each one adhering to its own baking tradition.
According to an Eastern tradition, the custom of distributing eggs with the bread is related to a story about Mary Magdalene: When she was brought before the emperor Titus and told him of Jesus' resurrection, the emperor did not believe her. Mary then took an egg out of her pouch and said: "If I have spoken the truth, may the egg in my hand grow red" - and so it did.