“Do you know about the
tradition of the Easter Bunny and the Easter eggs?”
The Easter
Bunny or Easter
Rabbit is a character depicted as a rabbit bringing Easter
eggs, who sometimes is depicted with clothes. In legend, the Easter bunny
brings baskets filled with colored eggs, candy and sometimes also toys to the
homes of children, and as such shows similarities to Santa Claus (Christmas) as
they both bring gifts to children on the night before their respective holiday.
Rabbits and Hares
The hare was a popular motif in medieval church art. In ancient
times it was widely believed (as by Pliny, Plutarch, Philostratus and Aelian)
that the hare was hermaphrodite. The idea that a hare could reproduce
without loss of virginity led to an association with the Virgin Mary, with
hares sometimes occurring in illuminated manuscripts and Northern European
paintings of the Virgin and Christ Child. It may also have been associated with
the Holy Trinity, as in the three hares motif, representing the "One in Three and Three in One"
of which the triangle or three interlocking shapes such as rings are common
symbols.
 |
| (Window of Three Hares) in Paderborn Cathedral in Paderborn, Germany. |
Easter Eggs
The precise origin of the ancient custom of decorating eggs is
not known, although evidently the blooming of many flowers in spring coincides
with the use of the fertility symbol of eggs—and eggs boiled with some flowers
change their color, bringing the spring into the homes. Many Christians of the
Eastern Orthodox Church to this day typically dye their Easter eggs red, the
color of blood, in recognition of the blood of the sacrificed Christ (and, of
the renewal of life in springtime). Some also use the color green, in honor of
the new foliage emerging after the long dead time of winter.
German Protestants wanted to retain the Catholic custom of
eating colored eggs for Easter, but did not want to introduce their children to
the Catholic rite of fasting. Eggs were forbidden to Catholics during the fast
of Lent, which was the reason for the abundance of eggs at Easter time.
The idea of an egg-laying bunny came to the U.S. in the 18th
century. German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children
about the "Osterhase" (sometimes spelled "Oschter
Haws". "Hase" means "hare", not rabbit, and
in Northwest European folklore the "Easter Bunny" indeed is a hare,
not a rabbit. According to the legend, only good children received gifts of
colored eggs in the nests that they made in their caps and bonnets before
Easter.
“For me, understanding the history and the symbols of a holiday
is like a healthy tree with deep roots.”
~Laurel
Was it a Morning Like This?
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