Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hopping down the bunny trail
Hippidy hoppidy Easter's on its way...
Really, how did the "Easter bunny" myth and tradition come about? And why is it a bunny? The Easter bunny supposedly comes and hides Easter eggs for little girls and boys. I just don't get it. Bunnies don't lay eggs! And what's the deal with painting them? It makes no sense!
Being a Catholic, I thought Easter was supposed to be about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and ascending into heaven. So in the midst of all this, where does the bunny fit in? How did someone come up with that? How long has this bunny business been a tradition?
Well it started to bug me SO MUCH that I decided to do a little research. I'm not sure exactly how reliable Wikipedia is, but they explained it well enough that it makes sense.
According to Wikipedia, the myth of the Easter Bunny was origianlly a Pagan belief. It was celebrated before the rise of Christianity, in honor of the goddess of fertility, Eostre (in Germany, the parallel goddess is called Ostara). While the Easter Bunny tradition has nothing to do with the actual secular Christian beliefs of the holiday, it deals more with celebrating spring and fertility and the end of harsh winters. Pagan beliefs consisted of a goddess by the name of Eostre who aided a bird with frozen wings by turning it into a rabbit/ hare. Because the rabbit/ hare was a bird to begin with, it allegedly had the ability to lay eggs. Hence, the easter bunny myth.
However, another thing I found in my research on Wikipedia was that the Germans called the Easter Bunny "Osterhas" where Has means "hare". I'm not exactly sure what the difference between a typical rabbit and a hare is, but one thing I found out is the difference in their mating habbits. Apparently, instead of burrows, hares make their homes in hollows called forms. Also, a certain breed of bird called the Lapwing have similar nests to hares. Because these two nesting grounds of very different species are similar, it was concluded that the hares actually laid the eggs; not the Lapwings. This confusion also may have contributed to the Easter Bunny myth.
So what is the significance behind bunnies and eggs? Well, again I found on Wikipedia that eggs symbolize fertility, which makes perfect sense. Rabbits also represent fertility, which makes sense on behalf of their overproduction of offspring. And since the holiday celebration revolves around spring, fertility, and renewal, rabbits and eggs were appropriate symbols for this holiday.
Well, I feel so much better now that this mystery has been solved for me. However, now that this holiday mystery has been solved, I want to know more about all the typical U.S. holidays. April Fool's Day, May Day, etc. I think I'll research those next and aim my next blog topics on those.
Thanks for listening!
Kaitlyn
I was just wondering the same thing! I've never been very big on the easter bunny thing, because Easter is indeed a holiday to celebrate Christ rising from the grave. Sadly, it's just another example of non-Christian beliefs invading a Christian holiday. Sure, it was cute and wondrful when I was little, but now that the glamour has worn off, I wish people would remember the true meaning of the holiday. ^_^
I don't mean to burst your bubble, but Easter was technically a Pagan holiday before it became a Christian holiday. Therefore, I guess it would be the Christians invading a Pagan's holiday... :? :-B
Either way, it's just another holiday that merchandisers make money off of. Everything is so materialistic these days! Grrrrr!
Really? Well, that's a new one to me.
You know what? We've just got two holidays, one Pagan and one Christian, on the same day, apparently. XD
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.
just like christmas
"my first name must be, "He aint sh@t", cause everytime I come through, yall be like "He aint sh@t"!....I'll be dat" --Redman
"Anything that can go wrong, Will go wrong"----Murphy's Law
I was wondering about the whole easter bunny thing to. Thanks for informing me.
i am really happy i read this. I learned something new. Thx!
Is it really? Could it possibly be??? My Vivianime????? *gasp!*
Kaitlyn Gates- future author!!!
I had no idea about this but often wondered the same thing. My belief is that these fake holiday "people" were made up to make kids behave and get more excited about the holiday. It is wrong but that is what I believe. Because during x-mas parents say
" Be good or Santa won't come." Santa was actually a real person, but was called St. Nick and brought toys to poor people in one small town. I believe that is how that got started. But x-mas is very overrated if you ask me. I have x-mas but if you think about it you are getting gifts and giving gifts that has nothing to really do with Jesus being born? how selfish is that.lol
Something people should know about:
http://www.progressiveu.org/032913-lupus-uncureable-wait-what
...Easter was adopted from pagan (and in this case, Celtic) sources during the process of converting native cultures to christianity.
The Pagan origins of the Easter Bunny
TTFN,
percivale
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