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I heard from an old Lithuanian/Polish Jew (frum from Lithuania/Poland). He says that he had a custom to eat colored eggs in his shtetl, and everyone did it.

Is this custom documented anywhere, and does anyone mention it?

msh210
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Am Haaretz Gamur Mideoraysa
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    @HahuGavra http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/241/Q3/ – ertert3terte May 07 '12 at 04:22
  • @AmHaaretzGamurMideoraysa theres an article about it here, although they fail to trace it to any written source, which seems to be what youre looking for. – Hahu Gavra May 07 '12 at 04:27
  • Similar: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/22977 – msh210 Dec 27 '12 at 13:59
  • sounds christian to me. i'm close with chabad and i never heard of it. –  Oct 24 '14 at 21:21
  • I only know this from family friends so take this with a grain of salt - In ex-soviet countries a lot of Jews had a lot of different costumes. For example they would eat Kosher and celebrate Hanukkah but also celebrate Novigod which is a non-religious but very close to Christmas holiday. – Benjamin Gruenbaum Oct 25 '14 at 14:42
  • @Bracha did you mean to post that comment on the answer that mentions Chabad? The question doesn't. – Monica Cellio Oct 26 '14 at 21:59
  • So this is where the non-Jews get the custom to color eggs for Easter... – DonielF Jul 13 '16 at 21:44

1 Answers1

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Despite it's apparent similarity to pagan practices dating back thousands of years, this custom exists in some communities (particularly among Lubavitchers and some other Chassidic groups) and dates back at least several decades. Similar customs (such as eating colored eggs on Purim) existed in Jewish communities in Afghanistan and Yemen, and women in Tunisia would write messages on eggs for Lag Ba'omer. These customs date back at least several decades, too.

The customs of these various kehillos may share a common origin, but how much farther back these various customs extend may be a matter of speculation. Interestingly, the earliest known pagan custom originated in Persia around the time of Purim, and may therefore have been adapted from a Jewish custom for Purim.

Fred
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    +1. Re "women in Tunisia would write messages on eggs for Lag Ba'omer": note that that's a chasidic custom for upshern also. I wonder whether the two bear a common origin (especially inasmuch as many upshernishen (is that the plural?) are on lag baomer). – msh210 May 07 '12 at 05:55
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    Minhag Chabad is to color eggs brown during the cooking process: http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=30483&st=&pgnum=290 – Curiouser May 07 '12 at 06:57
  • @Curiouser: In the fine print he says that this is Minhag Karlin as well. He doesn't bring it there, but the eggs are browned by cooking them with onion peels. – Menachem May 07 '12 at 09:37
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    @Curiouser: I don't know that I'd call that official Minhag Chabad, though. It may just have been the Rebbe's personal custom. – Alex May 07 '12 at 13:52