What Does the Bunny Have to Do With Easter?

Happy Easter Everyone,

Easter is synonymous with the risen Christ, spring and the Easter bunny.  All Christians go to church on Sunday to celebrate Jesus dying for our sins and rising on Easter to sit at the right hand of God. 

We all know this, but I bet you don't know about the Easter bunny.  There is nothing in the Bible about a long-eared, cotton-tailed Easter Bunny.  There's not a passage in the Bible about children painting eggs, hunting for eggs and getting baskets of scrumptious goodies either.  We all know real rabbits don't lay eggs, don't we.  Smile!

So what does the bunny have to do with Easter?  The rabbit has nothing to do with Easter.   Bunnies, eggs, Easter gifts and fluffy, yellow chicks all stem from pagan roots.  All of these things were incorporated into the celebration of Easter separately from the Christian tradition of honoring the day Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

According to the University of Florida's Center for Children's Literature and Culture, the origin of the celebration - and the origin of the Easter Bunny - can be traced back to the 13th-century, pre-Christian Germany, when people worshiped several gods and goddesses.  The Teutonic deity Eostra was the goddess of spring and fertility.  Feasts were held in her honor on the Vernal Equinox.  Her symbol was the rabbit because of the animal's high reproduction rate.

The first Easter Bunny legend was documented in the 1500s.  By 1680, the first story about a rabbit laying eggs and hiding them in a garden was published.  These legends were brought to the United States in the 1700s, when German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania Dutch country, according to the Center for Children's Literature and Culture.

The tradition of making nests for the rabbit to lay its eggs in soon followed.  Eventually, nests became baskets and colorful eggs were swapped for candy, treats and other small gifts.  I'm wondering if Easter will become like Christmas; more and more gift oriented with ever bigger gifts.

Here are a couple traditions celebrated around the world:

"In Lancashire (England) on Easter eve boys and men have been in the habit of touring the towns and villages as 'Pace-eggers' begging for eggs before performing the 'Pace-Egging' or Pasch (i.e., Easter) play."

In Greece each person in a group bangs is red Easter Egg (not knowing that it is the symbol of the Goddess) against the eggs of all the others present in turn, saying, "Christ is risen,' and receives the reply 'He is risen indeed.'"

I think most people would be surprised that the word Easter goes all the way back to the Tower of Babel.  The origin begins not long after the biblical Flood.  For more information on this subject you can go to the sources below. 

Sources: http://www.discovery.com/history/what-does-easter-bunny-come-have-to-do-easter-120406.htm and http://christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html

Have a wonderful Sunday.  See you next week.

Sandy AKA Sandra K. Marshall

http://www.eirelander-publishing.com   

Happy Easter

Hi Everyone,

I have some wonderful memories of Easter when I was a child that I would like to share with you.  We were always up early on Easter Sunday for sunrise service and a huge breakfast afterward.  Yep, I admit that the food was an enticement for me to get up before dawn.  Also, I'll acknowledge once I was at the service, which was outdoors, watching the sun come up made me glad to be there and put me in the mood for the words spoken about the resurrection of God. How could anyone deny a greater power with all that beauty surrounding them.  Not me.

After the sunrise service, we went home and changed into our Sunday best and headed to Sunday school, and then church services.  Next, we went to Grandma's house for dinner where we always had fried chicken and all the other good fattening stuff to go with it.  My mouth melts at the thought of homemade ice cream, hot pies and cakes for dessert.  Yum!

After dinner, we were handed baskets and told to find the Easter eggs hidden in the back yard, or if it was cold the eggs were concealed in the house.  We had real hard boiled eggs not the plastic kind.  You can't imagine the squeals and excitement expressed when someone found a colored egg.  It was great fun. 

Before the day was over, we were eating again.  In those days, we ate a lot, and it was all good.  LOL  Most people worked very hard back then, so they didn't gain a lot of weight.  They were lucky that way. 

Easter was a wonderful day filled with beauty, love and family.  How did you celebrate Easter when you were a child?  Was it happy for you?

Have a great week everyone.  See you next Sunday, and thanks for visiting me today.

Hugs,

Sandy

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