Easter eggs

Easter will be here soon, and because we Icelanders have a notoriously sweet tooth I thought I would write about Easter eggs.

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Icelandic Easter eggs are invariably made from chocolate, although you will find Easter decorations made from hen's eggs. A couple of months before Easter you will start seeing small chocolate eggs in bright wrappings in supermarkets, grocery stores and candy kiosks all over the country. These contain a piece of paper with a proverb or saying, and some also contain a few pieces of candy.

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Then, about a month before Easter, racks upon racks of bigger eggs start appearing in shops. They range in size from goose egg to bigger than an ostrich egg and are generally made from milk chocolate, although you can now get at least one type of dark chocolate. They also come designed for diabetics and people with food allergies. All the eggs contain candy and a proverb, and are decorated on the outside, usually with an artificial baby chicken on top, but sometimes with plastic figurines for kids. At least one producer is boosting sales by hiding cell phones inside some of the biggest eggs.

Here is a typical Icelandic Easter egg. I'm planning to buy the dark chocolate type for myself and will post a picture later.

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