There are two legends about St. Mary Magdalene. The first legend is that St. Mary Magdalene put a basket of eggs at the foot of the cross, and that the eggs were painted red by the blood of the dying Jesus. The eggs were then brought and presented to Emperor Tiberius as a witness to the crucifixion.
The second legend is that St. Mary Magdalene, at a banquet given by the Emperor Tiberius, took the opportunity to proclaim Christ's resurrection. The emperor, it is said, replied by saying the the resurrection "is as likely as the egg in your hand turning red." The egg turned red in her hand as he spoke. St. Mary Magdalene then proclaimed the good news to all of the imperial household.
Both these legends point us to the reasons for preaching and proclamation. Preaching is always the proclamation of the good news of the crucifixion and the resurrection. Not only that, it is a proclamation spoken to the powers of this world. The legends of St. Mary Magdalene's witness, through the red eggs but to the Emperor Tiberius, are examples of what the church is always offering to the world: the story of the work of Christ in his crucifixion and resurrection.
We hope you enjoy these sermons, our own witness to Christ's work: our own red eggs for the emperor.
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I'm Christian Orthodox and for the feast day of Pascha, celebrating our Lord's Ressurection we are each given a red egg. We have a type of game that we play with these eggs. On each egg there is a pointed side and a rounded side. Two people come together and present their egg: either two rounded sides or two pointed side. One person bops the other person's eggs with his own and whoever's eggs is the last surviving (unbroken) wins. I am not sure why we play this game or where it originated.
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