Easter Egg
Google is Askew
I found an Easter Egg on Google. If you search for askew on google, your results will be tilted to the side. This came up at work yesterday because they installed a couple white boards in our office. The first one seems level enough but the second one is askew. If you haven’t figured it out yet, askew means that it is slightly unlevel. My Korean coworkers wanted a word to describe its orientation. There was some confusion about the spelling, so we searched for it and found the Easter egg. We didn’t even notice it at first.
Meaning
An Easter Egg is a secret message or image hidden in a larger piece of media (usually electronic). The term is related to the children’s game, Easter Egg Hunt. In this game, children must search for eggs (or chocolates) hidden around a property.
Osterhase
The myth of Easter eggs is that they come from rabbits, an idea that comes from Germany. There, the Easter bunny is called the osterhase and is first mentioned in the 1500s. In the legend, it is said that a poor woman decorated eggs for children to find in her garden. As soon as the children found the eggs, they spotted a large hare (rabbit) hopping away. So, the children thought the eggs were left there by the hare. The legend of the osterhase was brought to America in the 1700s by German immigrants where it became associated with Easter.
Gardening
The poor lady in the story hid the eggs in her garden. Nowadays, gardeners still use eggshells in their garden. I have used them in the past as well. If I remember correctly, I tried using them to prevent slugs from getting to my vegetable. As it turns out, this is a myth. Egg shells can also be used to deter deer and rabbits as they don’t like the smell. However, rodents like the smell of eggs, so it might encourage more rodents to come to your garden. Eggshells can be used as mulch as they are thick and can prevent some weed growth. They are also a good source of calcium. Calcium isn’t the most important nutrient for plants, but it does help with cell wall construction making the plants stronger.
Painting Eggs
In the German legend, the poor lady decorated the eggs. The practice of decorating eggs is very old. Approximately 60,000 years ago, ostrich eggs were used to transport water around the Kalahari desert. The fragments of the ostrich shells that were uncovered revealed that their owners decorated them. It is believed that this was done to mark ownership. Even today, easter eggs are quite colorful. However, the best decorated eggs are Faberge eggs. Peter Carl Faberge was a master jeweler and goldsmith. In the late 19th century, he was commissioned to craft an Easter surprise for Czar Alexander III in 1885. Faberge created eggs for the czar almost every year. Each egg was one of a kind and are worth a lot of money now.
The modern definition of an Easter egg is something hidden in software. The first recorded video game Easter egg was programmed by Warren Robinett in 1979 in a video gamed called, Adventure. If you moved a dot to a secret location, you would see a message from Robinett, “Created by Warren Robinett.” At that time, programmers did not receive credit for their work. Robinett said that his Easter egg was a way of putting his signature on the game. His company didn’t know about his signature until a 15-year-old sent a letter to Attari about it.
There are a lot of lists and videos about video game Easter eggs. However, if you want to see some interesting real-life Easter eggs, check out this article by Bored Panda.
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Reference:
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/easter-symbols.
https://herald-zeitung.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/article_a92ef55e-67bc-11e0-99ac-001cc4c03286.html
https://www.gardenista.com/posts/diy-5-ideas-to-use-eggshells-in-the-garden-pest-control-mulch-fertilizer/
http://www.allaboutslugs.com/eggshell-myth-busted/
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/egg-cetera-6-hunting-for-the-worlds-oldest-decorated-eggs
https://www.history.com/news/romanov-family-russia-mystery-faberge-easter-eggs
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/faberge-luxurious-eggs/index.html
https://gamesandimpact.org/uncategorized/the-cake-is-a-lie-easter-eggs-in-video-games/#:~:text=The%20first%20recorded%20video%20game,eggs%20in%20a%20video%20game.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sethporges/2017/12/20/the-true-story-behind-the-original-video-game-easter-egg-that-inspired-ready-player-one/?sh=73627fe12976