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(NewsNation) — With egg prices up 53% from a year ago, some Christians may be considering skipping using eggs in their Easter celebrations this year. But eggs have been a part of this religious season since practically the beginning of the Christian faith.

In pagan cultures, eggs were symbols of fertility, rebirth and the start of spring. Early Christians adopted the use of eggs in their celebration of Easter, the hard exterior shell representing the sealed tomb where Jesus was buried after his death on the cross. The cracked eggshells represent the empty tomb Jesus left after his resurrection from the dead Easter Sunday morning.

Early Christians dyed eggs red to represent the blood shed by Jesus when he died on the cross. Other colors were used to represent other meanings tied to the Easter story — yellow representing the resurrection and blue representing love.

In the medieval period, eggs were forbidden during Lent, the 40-day period of penance, fasting and praying in preparation for Easter. When the fast ended at Easter, eggs were featured in the celebration.

According to British history, in 1290, King Edward I had 450 eggs boiled and dyed or painted in gold leaf to give to his royal household at Easter. Dyeing and coloring Easter eggs has continued as an art form, particularly in Slavic cultures. Beautifully painted eggs are still made and prized in Poland, Ukraine and throughout eastern Europe.

Historians suspect the Easter egg hunt dates to the late 16th century, when Martin Luther, the German theologian who helped birth the Reformation, organized egg hunts for women and children to illustrate the story of the resurrection. According to one of the gospel accounts, the tomb where Jesus was buried was discovered empty by Mary Magdalene, one of his female followers.

In the U.S., the White House Easter Egg Roll began in 1878, during the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. The popular event, with its egg hunts and egg rolling, have no religious significance, but some people consider the egg roll a symbol of the rolling away of the stone that blocked Jesus tomb before he emerged from the grave.