What is "easter egg"

Easter \Eas"ter\ ([=e]s"t[~e]r), n. [AS. e['a]ster, e['a]stran, paschal feast, Easter; akin to G. ostern; fr. AS. E['a]stre, a goddess of light or spring, in honor of whom a festival was celebrated in April; whence this month was called in AS. E['a]sterm[=o]na[eth]. From the root of E. east. See East.]

1. An annual church festival commemorating Christ's resurrection, and occurring on Sunday, the second day after Good Friday. It corresponds to the pascha or passover of the Jews, and most nations still give it this name under the various forms of pascha, pasque, p[^a]que, or pask.

2. The day on which the festival is observed; Easter day. Note: Easter is used either adjectively or as the first element of a compound; as, Easter day or Easter-day, Easter Sunday, Easter week, Easter gifts, Easter eggs. Sundays by thee more glorious break, An Easter day in every week. --Keble. Note: Easter day, on which the rest of the movable feasts depend, is always the first Sunday after the fourteenth day of the calendar moon which (fourteenth day) falls on, or next after, the 21st of March, according to the rules laid down for the construction of the calendar; so that if the fourteenth day happen on a Sunday, Easter day is the Sunday after. --Eng. Cyc. Easter dues (Ch. of Eng.), money due to the clergy at Easter, formerly paid in communication of the tithe for personal labor and subject to exaction. For Easter dues, Easter offerings, voluntary gifts, have been substituted. Easter egg.

   1. A painted or colored egg used as a present at Easter.

   2. An imitation of an egg, in sugar or some fine material, sometimes made to serve as a box for jewelry or the like, used as an Easter present.

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Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg|250px|thumb|right|This image reveals a hidden Easter egg when the hedgehog in the bottom right-hand corner is activated. Another Easter egg can be found when a mouse pointer is hovered over the aforementioned hedgehog.

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An Easter egg is an intentional inside joke, hidden message, or feature in an interactive work such as a computer program, video game or DVD menu screen. The name is used to evoke the idea of a traditional Easter egg hunt.

Released in 1979, Atari's Adventure contained the first hidden message in a video game to have been discovered by its players; the message is "Created by Warren Robinett", and was inserted by Robinett, the game's programmer. According to Robinett, the term Easter egg was applied by Atari personnel on being alerted to the secret addition, and making the comparison of players' discovery of these secrets akin to the traditional Easter egg hunt. Since Atari did not publicly credit game designers, Robinett inserted the message after the game's completion partially in an attempt to gain some recognition for his work. In 2004, an earlier Easter egg was found in Video Whizball, a 1978 game for the Fairchild Channel F system, displaying programmer Bradley Reid-Selth's surname.

Easter egg may refer to:

• Easter egg, a special egg often given to celebrate Easter
• Easter egg (interaction design), an intentional hidden message