Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, 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 behavior 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 or the Christkind, as they both bring gifts to children on the night before their respective holidays. The custom was first[2] mentioned in Georg Franck von Franckenau's De ovis paschalibus[3] ('About Easter Eggs') in 1682, referring to a German tradition of an Easter Hare bringing Easter eggs for the children.

Easter Bunny
A 1907 postcard featuring the Easter Bunny
GroupingLegendary creature
Sub groupingAnimal
Other name(s)Easter Rabbit, Easter Hare
CountryGermany

Symbols

Rabbits and hares
Inflatable Easter bunny in front of San Francisco City Hall

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.[4][5][6] 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.[4][7]

Eggs
Main articles: Easter egg and Egg decorating

Eggs have been used as fertility symbols since antiquity.[8] Eggs became a symbol in Christianity associated with rebirth as early as the 1st century AD, via the iconography of the Phoenix egg, and they became associated with Easter specifically in medieval Europe, when eating them was prohibited during the fast of Lent. A common practice in England at that time was for children to go door-to-door begging for eggs on the Saturday before Lent began. People handed out eggs as special treats for children prior to their fast.[9]

As a special dish, eggs would probably have been decorated as part of the Easter celebrations. Later, German Protestants retained the custom of eating colored eggs for Easter, though they did not continue the tradition of fasting.[10] Eggs boiled with some flowers change their color, bringing the spring into the homes, and some over time added the custom of decorating the eggs.[11] 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. The Ukrainian art of decorating eggs for Easter, known as pysanky, dates to ancient, pre-Christian times. Similar variants of this form of artwork are seen amongst other eastern and central European cultures.[13]

The idea of an egg-giving hare went to the U.S. in the 18th century. Protestant German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children about the "Osterhase" (sometimes spelled "Oschter Haws"[14]). Hase means "hare", not rabbit, and in Northwest European folklore the "Easter Bunny" indeed is a hare. 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.[15]

  • Dreihasenfenster (Window of Three Hares) in Paderborn Cathedral in Paderborn, Germany
  • Easter bunnies and Easter eggs as Easter biscuits
  • Marshmallow bunnies and candy eggs in an Easter basket
  • A bunny and decorated Easter eggs
  • Chocolate Easter Bunny molds from Alsace Musée du pain d'épices

Alleged association with Ēostre

In his 1835 Deutsche Mythologie, Jacob Grimm states "The Easter Hare is unintelligible to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara". This proposed association was repeated by other authors including Charles Isaac Elton[16] and Charles J. Billson.[17] In 1961 Christina Hole wrote, "The hare was the sacred beast of Eastre (or Ēostre), a Saxon goddess of Spring and of the dawn."[18] The belief that Ēostre had a hare companion who became the Easter Bunny was popularized when it was presented as fact in the BBC documentary Shadow of the Hare (1993).[19]

The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore however states "... there is no shred of evidence" that hares were sacred to Ēostre, noting that Bede does not associate her with any animal.[20]

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See also

References
  1. Cross, Gary (2004). Wondrous Innocence and Modern American Children's Culture. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195348132.
  2. Easter Bunny – What Does He Have To Do With Easter?, occultcenter.com
  3. Franck von Franckenau, Georg (1682). Disputatione ordinaria disquirens de ovis paschalibus / von Oster-Eyern. Satyrae Medicae. XVIII. Heidelberg. p. 6. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  4. Chapman, Chris (2004). "What does the Symbol Mean?". Three Hares Project. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  5. Marta Powell Harley (1985). "Rosalind, the hare, and the hyena in Shakespeare's As You Like It". Shakespeare Quarterly. 36 (3): 335–337. doi:10.2307/2869713. JSTOR 2869713.
  6. "Sir Thomas Browne (1646; 6th ed., 1672) Pseudodoxia Epidemica III:xvii (pp. 162–166)".
  7. "Three Hares as representation of the Trinity". Threehares.blogspot.com. 2006-02-25. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
  8. Heller, Steven (April 2014). "Seeing Rabbits". Academic Search Complete. 68 (2).
  9. D'Costa, Krystal. "Beyond Ishtar: The Tradition of Eggs at Easter". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 28 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  10. Shrove Tuesday Pancakes! by Bridget Haggerty – Irish Culture & Customs, World Cultures European, paragraph 5 line 2 refers to the Catholic custom of abstaining from eggs during Lent. Accessed 3/1/08
  11. Snodgrass, Lucie L. (March 2005). "DYED IN Tradition". Academic Search Complete (329). Vegetarian Times.
  12. How To Dye Red Eggs with Onion Skins for Greek Easter by Nancy Gaifyllia from Your Guide to Greek Food on About.Com Accessed April 9, 2008
  13. Hallett, Vicky (March 31, 2003). "Egg-cellent art". Academic Search Complete. 134 (10). U.S. News & World Report.
  14. "Gruß vom Osterhasen: Oschter Haws Song". Germanworldonline.com. 2011-04-23. Retrieved 2013-03-31.
  15. Easter Symbols Archived 2008-03-12 at the Wayback Machine from Lutheran Hour Ministries. Accessed 2/28/08
  16. Charles Isaac Elton (1890). Origins of English History
  17. Charles J Billson (1892). Folk-Lore vol. 3 issue 4
  18. Christina Hole (1961). Easter and its Customs
  19. Attenborough, Sir David (Presenter) (April 12, 1993). Wildlife on One Easter Special Shadow of the Hare (Television). United Kingdom: BBC.
  20. Jacqueline Simpson and Stephen Roud (2000). A Dictionary of English Folklore
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