An ÆGstra Easter experience

Eggs mean new life and the arrival of spring! The Green Museum celebrates this with activities and stories about eggs throughout Easter. Here you and your family can learn more about the history of eggs, and not least chickens.

For thousands of years, the changing seasons and the lives of animals have been crucial frameworks for agricultural society. Spring has probably also been the most important of the four seasons. For here the days grow longer, the frost retreats, and life begins to blossom again from the dark depths of the earth.

This is also where the first baby animals see the light of day. In the chicken coop, this means that the hens start laying eggs again – and before long the chicks will hatch!

That is why the egg has become a strong symbol of fertility and spring, both in folk traditions and in the church's Easter celebration.

And therefore it is only natural that The Green Museum focuses on the egg, the chicken and the hens in the fun and educational activities of the Easter holiday this year.

Easter tour, egg coloring and tastings

At the Green Museum you can go on a combined indoor and outdoor Easter tour with exciting stories, where you visit the museum's chickens in the chicken coop, chicks under the heat lamp, see kitchens from the 19th century to the 1980s in the House of Food and hear about Easter food. The tour ends with the story about the tradition of Easter eggs.

There is also the opportunity to sample Nikåls soup and braided bread, which the museum prepares according to historical recipes. On certain days, the Green Museum's brewers' guild and food guild will serve tastings of freshly brewed beer and historical Easter dishes.

Finally, you can also dye eggs in beautiful patterns and colors using herbs, flowers and onion skins for a small user fee (2 eggs for 10 kr.).

Eggs were a luxury item

Almost 200 years ago, Hans Christian Andersen told the story of the woman who went to market to sell the eggs her hen had laid. As she walked, balancing the basket of eggs on her head, she dreamed of what she would do with all the lovely money she would earn! Unfortunately, that's not how it went in the story; but in the countryside at that time, it was the women who were responsible for the chicken flocks, and the money they earned was their own. It was often a significant addition to the household's income.

Back then, fresh eggs were a luxury item. And they actually were until artificial light and heat came along. Because throughout the winter, the chickens barely laid any eggs.

So when spring finally arrived, Danish households could suddenly buy and prepare fresh eggs again! That's why the return of eggs was celebrated as something special – with, for example, beautiful, colored eggs that could be given as gifts.

Today, approximately 90 million kilos of eggs are produced in Denmark per year, and each Dane eats approximately 4 eggs per week on average! More than 100,000 households in Denmark keep chickens at home according to the Danish Poultry Breeders' Association, and interest is growing. We want to be self-sufficient in eggs, and we especially want to keep chickens that lay naturally colored eggs.

Experience an ÆGstra Easter at the Green Museum, where you taste and learn about Easter traditions, and help welcome spring and the chickens from April 1st (and no, it's not an April Fool's Day).

 

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ALL EASTER DAYS FROM 10-17

TASTING SAMPLES
Kale soup
Braided breads

ACTIVITIES
Stand-up tour with 5 stops
Visit the hens and chicks
Egg dyeing (2 eggs for 10,- DKR)

ONLY SOME DAYS
April 1st – Meet the Brewers Guild and taste their historic beer from 12-3pm
April 3-4 – Meet the Food Guild and taste Easter from 12-15
April 5th – Experience the tractor workshop from 11-15