Easter on the Net - The Origin of the Easter Bunny & Colored Easter Eggs

The Origin of the Easter Bunny & Colored Easter Eggs

Just as Santa Claus represents Christmas, a hopping life-size bunny with a basket full of colorful eggs is the quintessential image of Easter.

The original Easter bunny was probably associated with the Pagan equinox festival that predated Easter. The Saxons devoted the month of April to celebrating their goddess of spring and fertility, who was, not coincidentally, named Eastre. Eastre's sacred animal was the hare - not surprising since the rabbit is one of the most common symbols of fertility and rebirth.

The colored eggs carried by today's Easter bunnies have another, even more ancient origin. Eggs have long been associated with fertility and springtime festivals - for so long, in fact, that the precise roots of the association are unknown. Ancient Romans and Greeks utilized eggs in festivals celebrating resurrected gods. The egg also featured prominently in the Jewish rituals of Passover - and still today the roasted egg has prominence on the seder table as an essential symbol of springtime and rebirth.

Scholars believe that the pairing of the hare and the egg together in Easter may also have Pagan roots. During springtime, when days and nights were equal length, the hare was identified with the moon goddess and the egg with the sun god. Pairing the two together offered a kind of ying and yang to spring equinox celebrations.

The next historical entry under Bunny & Egg is found fifteen hundred years later in Germany. There, children would eagerly await the arrival of the Oschter Haws, a rabbit who delighted children on Easter morning by laying colored eggs in nests. This was also the first known time that the rabbit and egg were iconoclastically linked together.

The German tradition of the Oschter Haws migrated to America in the 1800s, likely accompanying German immigrants, many of whom settled in Pennsylvania. Over the past 200 years, the Oschter Haws or Easter Bunny has become the most commercially recognized symbol of Easter.

Today American children squeal with delight when they see the bunny-whether he's headlining their neighborhood Easter egg hunt or greeting visitors at the local mall. The Easter bunny and his ubiquitous basket of eggs has surely become the most adored and recognized symbol of the Easter season.

Related Articles:
Easter Eggs
The Easter Bunny
Easter Peeps: Marshmallowy Goodness
Make Your Own Easter Baskets
Hosting the Perfect Easter Egg Hunt
The Easter Lily

Add Comment

Name:
E-Mail:
Location:
Message:

Comments

Cheryl from California, US

05:40 10/01/2009

Most celebrations may have roots and or similarities to Pagan holidays but its how a person Celebrates the Holiday and their reasons they celebrate it that determine the meaning of the Holiday for them.

Josh Branham from Maryland, US

22:40 09/14/2009

Christmas isn't a pagan holiday, it is just set over a pagan holiday to "erase" it. Christians, as you say without relating yourself, break the first commandment only if they worship another god other than God. However, barely anyone still follows Christmas as a Christian or religious holiday anymore so it really doesn't matter.

jas from Texas, US

12:51 04/15/2009

I belive that christians should not get involve with this tradition, first, because it is a pagan celebration ;God's word saids that we should not follow the world's traditions, and second, because this honors others gods, and doing this; christians brake the first comandmant

Miriam Zajarias from Mexico

15:05 04/14/2009

Hope this explains something, Love, Karen

Sharon Flores from Mexico

15:31 04/12/2009

Hello there!!! I was looking for info about Easter and now I know!!! Happy holidays from Mexico!!!! :D Eat lots of chocolate eggs for me!!!

Little Feather from Arkansas, US

12:02 04/12/2009

August and Stacy...I commend you both on your comments. People will never get it that Easter/Ostara is actually a Pagan holiday. What gets me, the Christian's are so down on Pagan's, yet they celebrate the Pagans' holiday's. Go figure. Yes, Easter/Ostara, IS indeed, a Pagan holiday. I thank you two, August and Stacy, for speaking up for the Pagan's. Happy Ostara!! :) Blessed Be..

August from Colorado, US

11:30 04/12/2009

Stacy, I think you need to re-read the article a bit more carefully. Though its roots are ecclectic, Easter is, indeed, a pagan holiday. The christian church forcably supplanted the original traditions, exactly the church did with other holidays on the quote-unqoute christian calendar: Halloween (All Saints' Day) Christmas, etc. Mind you, if artfulness did not suffice in such a ruthless take-over, good old-fashioned christian was employed. It's certainly no wonder to me that a belief-system so infatuated with violent images, such as crucifixion, would resort to to oppress others. The true Easter traditions, in ironic contract, exhibit exquisite beauty. Tis a shame that the original rite of fertility has been hijacked... almost. Fortunately, much of its splendor remains intact. Still, if anyone has a right to be indignant, it would be the pre-Christian pagans, not a carmel-machiato soccer mom from the burbs. :)

tianovsky from Indonesia

11:11 04/12/2009

could you help me pls, what page or part of bible describe about easter bunny? as i know pagan wasn't have relation with Religion of God.

Stacy from North Carolina, US

11:08 04/12/2009

Why does no one seem to get the fact that this is a pagan holiday? The true christian holiday is passover!!!!! Christ became our passover. Why would you want your children to celebrate pagan traditions?

Margie Wergin

08:40 04/12/2009

Happy Easter Margie, Vickie, Katie In case you were ever wondering where the Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs originated from, I thought you would like to read this article. :)

Visit our other holiday celebrations