I am not a particularly religious person, but my parents grew up catholic, and I do celebrate religious holidays like Christmas and Easter. Mind you, there is very little religion involved in our celebrations.
Call it commercialism, call it what you like; I call it fun with my family.
I often question the ritual of holidays, like how a rabbit who hides eggs has anything to do with the resurrection of Christ, so I decided to do a little research into how the two went hand in hand.
It turns out, the easter bunny is a pagan symbol that predates the Christian celebration of Easter and was adopted by the Christians to try and gain followers (and you mocked my commercialism).
The pagan celebration was that of Eostre (the maiden godess of fertility) and was a celebration of fertility and rebirth which is why it happened in the spring. The rabbits were considered sacred because they are very fertile animals.
Over time, the Christians adopted the rabbit as more of a symbol of a sacrificial animal representing the sacrifices that Christ made.
So, why the eggs? Well, that part of the celebration was adopted from a German celebration dating back to the 1500’s where German children believed that, if they were good, a magical rabbit would bring them a nest of coloured eggs.
Also, and I suppose this is where the resurrection part comes in, eggs are a symbol of rebirth. In the 600’s, Pope Gregory forbade eating eggs during lent, making them a special Easter treat.
So there you have it... The Easter bunny does make sense after all!
*If you Google “Jesus and the Easter Bunny” you will find some pretty funny, highly inappropriate images, so instead I offer you some chocolate bunny humour.
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