A 1907 postcard

The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a character depicted as a rabbit bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the Easter Hare originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behaviour at the start of the season of Eastertide.^[1] The Easter Bunny is sometimes depicted with clothes. In legend, the creature carries colored eggs in his basket, candy and sometimes also toys to the homes of children, and as such shows similarities to Santa Claus, as they both bring gifts to children on the night before their respective holiday. The German Lutheran custom was first mentioned in Georg Franck von Frankenau's De ovis paschalibus^[2] (About Easter Eggs) in 1682^[3] referring to an Alsace tradition of an Easter Hare bringing Easter Eggs. In many church services on Easter Sunday, a live rabbit representing the Easter Bunny, is brought into the congregation, especially for the children's message.^[4]

Symbols [edit]

Dreihasenfenster (Window of Three Hares) in Paderborn Cathedral

Marshmallow bunnies and candy eggs in an Easter basket

Rabbits and hares [edit]

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 a hermaphrodite.^[5][6][7] 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,^[5][8] representing the "One in Three and Three in One" of which the triangle or three interlocking shapes such as rings are common symbols. In England, this motif usually appears in a prominent place in the church, such as the central rib of the chancel roof, or on a central rib of the nave. This suggests that the symbol held significance to the church, and casts doubt on the theory that they may have been masons' or carpenters' signature marks.^[9] Additionally, according to legend, "a young rabbit who, for three days, waited anxiously for his friend, Jesus, to return to the Garden of Gethsemane, little knowing what had become of Him. Early on Easter morning, Jesus returned to His favorite garden and was welcomed by His animal friend. That evening, when Jesus' disciples came into the garden to pray, they discovered a path of beautiful larkspurs, each blossom bearing the image of a rabbit in its center as a remembrance of the patience and hope of this faithful little creature."^[10]

A chocolate Easter Bunny

Eggs, like rabbits and hares, are fertility symbols of antiquity. Since birds lay eggs and rabbits and hares give birth to large litters in the early spring, these became symbols of the rising fertility of the earth at the March Equinox.^{[citation needed]}

Rabbits and hares are both prolific breeders. Female hares can conceive a second litter of offspring while still pregnant with the first.^[11] This phenomenon is known as superfetation. Lagomorphs mature sexually at an early age and can give birth to several litters a year (hence the saying, "to breed like bunnies"). It is therefore not surprising that rabbits and hares should become fertility symbols, or that their springtime mating antics should enter into Easter folklore.

Eggs [edit]

A bunny and 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,^[12] 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.^[13]

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"^[14]).^[15] "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.^[16] In 1835, Jakob Grimm wrote of long-standing similar myths in Germany itself. Grimm suggested that these derived from legends of the reconstructed continental Germanic goddess *Ostara.^[17]

See also [edit]

• Easter Bilby
• Eostre
• Mad as a March hare
• Moon gazing hare
• Rabbits in the arts
• Rabbits in culture and literature
• The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Easter Bunny

• The Origin of the Easter Bunny - ChristStory Bestiary
• The Origin of Popular Easter Symbols
• Easter Origins and the Easter Bunny
• Charles J. Billson. "The Easter Hare". Folk-Lore. Vol. 3, No. 4 (December 1892).