Easter Trivia

by desertsister in Holidays, April 6, 2009

Weird Facts about the Christian Celebration of Easter and how it is attached to the Easter Bunny.

Here comes Peter Cotton Tail hopping down the bunny trail…… or let us pray and rejoice for Christ has risen…risen from the dead! How do these two seasonal holiday traditions mesh in the month of April? Well, that is a good question.

And the answer is – they don’t! I mean they do not come from the same historical line of origin, as some people think. Here are some facts about Easter and the Easter Bunny you may not know.

The origin of the giant Easter Bunny [similar in nature to the Christian Santa Claus] is not clear, but the mythical character was mentioned in written verse as early as the 1600’s. Some students of history regard the origin, of the bunny, to pre-Christian ancient fertility myths.
The Easter Bunny seems to have first surfaced in southwestern Germany, in a region called Alsace.
It is also believed the first Easter Bunnies that were edible came from Germany in the 1800’s and were made of flour. egg and sugar. They were a holiday pastry of sorts.
The first Easter Bunny tradition seen in America is traced to the Pennsylvania Dutch countryside in the late 1700’s. It was here that the arrival of the “Oschter Haws” was celebrated in rural homes, by building colored nests and hiding them in a secret place in their homes. If the kids were good the “Oschter Haws” would leave eggs for the kids.
Rabbits have been attached to the season of Spring for centuries. People knew that rabbits and hares give birth to large litters in the early spring, these became symbols of fertility of the earth when the Vernal Equinox occurred. Abundant bird eggs laid in the Spring also became related to Easter and the Big Bunny. And history traces the legends and myths surrounding mystical, magical and sacred eggs since the times of Babylonia. Eggs were a symbol of fertility and rebirth for many ancient people: in Rome the “mystic egg” was held in processionals in honor of the Mother Goddess of Rome and in the secret ceremonies of the Mysteries of Bacchus; the Druids had the egg as a sacred emblem; in Asia eggs were colored and used in various sacred celebrations to honor fertility gods. World-wide the egg was a symbol in sacred and religious rites for eons, so it was only fitting the Christians adopt it also.
Coloring Easter Eggs has many traditional threads of origin: some believe red eggs were the first color they were dyed to celebrate the blood of Christ’s sacrifice – green eggs celebrated the renewal of the earth in green grass and foliage.
Eating eggs during the Church Season of Lent, which precedes Easter, was forbidden by the Catholic Church for many centuries. So people gorged themselves on Easter Eggs on Easter Sunday!
There is a historical belief that the Christian Celebration with Bunny was to help converts to the faith give up and forget their Pagan Celebration that was in honor and worship to the goddess Eastre –Goddess of fertility and springtime whose symbol was the wild hare.
The beginning of Easter as an actual Christian Holiday began as a part of the Jewish Passover celebration, when the Christ was crucified, buried and arose from the dead all in one week – the Passover Week.