For some, Easter is a serious religious holiday. For others, it is a celebration of the end of winter and of renewal and beginnings. For others, it’s both, but for kids, it’s often a chocolate Easter bunny treat, colored eggs, and other sweet surprises.
It is well known that Easter is a mixture of many different traditions from many different cultures. The Easter Bunny is undoubtedly one of the most prominent icons of the holiday and, in fact, it has some very interesting origins.
Both the egg and the rabbits and hares have been symbols of fertility since ancient times. As prolific breeders, it is no wonder these animals became a symbol of fertility and rebirth associated with the land after a long and harsh winter.
The first German immigrants to the US, who brought many of their old country traditions with them (the Christmas tree was one of them). The “Pennsylvania Dutch” parents entertained their children with tales of Osterhase, or “Easter hare.” Like Sinterklaas at Christmas, Osterhase visits at night and leaves Easter gifts, including colored eggs, for well-behaved children. To this day, some children leave carrots for the Easter Hare, just as much as they leave milk and cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.
For such a fluffy creature, the Easter Bunny stirs up a great deal of controversy, both in the US and abroad. In the United States, some groups in a well-intentioned attempt to maintain a wall of separation between religion and secular life and to be more inclusive with non-Christians have renamed it the “Spring Bunny.” On the other hand, some Christians reject Easter entirely in recognition of the pagan roots of the holiday. In Australia, the introduction of rabbits, a non-native species, almost resulted in an ecological disaster when they became a pest. Australians have been trying to replace the Easter Bunny with a native species, a marsupial known as Bilby. If you’re in the land of Australia at Easter (where it actually happens during the fall), children’s Easter baskets are likely to contain a chocolate bilby rather than a chocolate bunny.
Another story attributes the Easter bunny to an “ancient” pagan legend. According to this “legend”, the goddess Eostre – for whom she is supposedly called “Easter” – found a wounded bird in a snowy forest one winter. To help him survive the cold, he turned him into a rabbit, but the transformation was incomplete because the rabbit continued to lay eggs. In gratitude, the rabbit decorated its eggs and presented them to Eostre each spring. Interestingly, there are no references to this pre-1990 legend, so it is doubtful that this tale constitutes some kind of ancient tradition.
Nonetheless, Easter is still a fun celebration of spring for kids of all ages.