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Did you know?
In the Middle Ages ostrich eggs were sometimes placed in churches as adornment or decoration.
William Durand of Mende (c.1230 - 1296) says:
"In some churches two eggs of ostriches and other things which cause admiration, and which are rarely seen, are accustomed to be suspended: that their means people may be drawn to church, and have their minds the more affected."
A novel way of boosting church attendance! Durand goes on to say:
"Again, some say that the ostrich, as being a forgetful bird, 'leaveth her eggs in the dust' (Job 34:14): and at length, when she beholdeth a certain star, returneth unto them, and cheereth them by her presence. There fore the eggs of ostriches are hung in churches to signify that man, being left of God on account of his sins, if at length he may be illuminated by the Divine Light, remembereth his faults and returneth to Him, who by looking on him with His Mercy cherisheth him."
A handy footnote to this passage says: "Perhaps this custom [of putting ostrich eggs in churches] was introduced by the Crusaders. 'As the ostrich is good for food, so it seems, are its eggs: to say nothing of their being objects of attention, as being used much in the East by way of ornament: for they are hung up in their places of public worship, along with many lamps.'"
William Durand, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, Book I: The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments, trans. John Mason Neale and Benjamin Webb (London: Gibbings, 1906), 62-3.
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