As we pour, mold, frost, stack and bake our way through days in the kitchen, we often share new things we’ve learned about the upcoming holiday. We’ve gathered this fun list of 10 facts about Easter, from jaw-dropping Peep production to poisonous (!) chocolate molds. Check out our 10 fun facts about this chocolaty holiday:
+ In 2012, Americans spent nearly $2.1 billion annually on Easter candy. That’s only second to the biggest candy holiday of the year, Halloween! Third and fourth place go to Christmas and Valentine’s Day, respectively.
+ Because of bunnies’ quick and prolific nature, it was once thought that rabbits conceived without copulation, prompting early Christians to consider them miraculous animals.
+ Over 90 million chocolate Easter bunnies are produced every year. Sixty million of those are consumed in the U.S. alone! (Have you met our chocolate bunny troop this year?)
+ In Germany, many old churches feature stone carvings of rabbits in groups of three, representing the Holy Trinity. For Easter, the Osterhase magically laid decorated eggs, which he carried in a basket and delivered to children on Easter morning. In olden days, these eggs were regular duck or chicken eggs.
+ Before chocolate, jelly beans and marshmallow, hot cross buns were served as Easter treats. These beautiful and simplistic sweet rolls were made by European monks and given during the poor during Lent.
+ WWII’s rations on chocolate and cocoa prompted previously solid chocolate Easter bunnies to become hollow to conserve ingredients.
+ In one year, the Peeps factory makes enough Peeps to circle the earth TWICE. That’s an average of 5.5 million Peeps a DAY! (Have you checked out our chocolate-covered Peeps yet?)
+Early European chocolate molds were created from tin-coated or silver-plated copper because of its easy pliability. However, when the plating began to wear thin, the copper oxidation rendered the chocolate poisonous. This prompted chocolate makers to begin creating molds from nickel-plated metals, and eventually plastic.
+ In 1890, a Pennsylvania druggist went down in history as the “father of the chocolate Easter bunny” when he displayed a five-foot chocolate bunny in his shop window as an Easter promotion, prompting sales of chocolate bunnies to skyrocket. (Meet Jacques, our own massive chocolate hare!)
+ Seventy-six percent of Americans claim to nibble on a chocolate bunny’s ears first. Five percent eat the feet first, while only 4% claim to eat the tail first! What do you eat first?