The vernal equinox, when daylight is evenly balanced with darkness for the first time since September, has always been marked as a time of rebirth. And it is widely celebrated with eggs. (Eostre, a Germanic goddess of spring and new life who lent her name to the Christian holiday of rebirth, was honored by the eating of eggs—sometimes brought by a rabbit, according to one legend.) An obvious symbol of spring and fertility, eggs can stand upright (at least in theory) on the date of the equinox, a practice that promised good luck in ancient China. In ancient Persia, Greece, and Rome, and present-day Iran, red eggs are given out to celebrate the arrival of spring, according to urban shaman Donna Henes’ newsletter Always in Season.

To celebrate either equinox or Easter this year, you might cook up some natural dyes to color eggs. Wheel of the Year (Llewellyn, 1992) suggests boiling an onion skin for an orange color, half a teaspoon of turmeric in a small amount water for yellow, beet juice and vinegar for pink, and vinegar and the outer leaves of a red cabbage (left out overnight) for robin’s-egg blue.

—Jay Walljasper