Why are Bunnies Associated with Easter?
The Easter Bunny is one of the most accommodated characters in reference to the holidays of the year aside from Santa Clause, but in this post we’re going to dig into why a little bit. Of course, there is no doubt that Easter is a Christian holiday, but there is good reason why even though the Easter Bunny was never mentioned, there is good reason why this time in Spring is very important for the rabbits.
Rabbits are a Sign of Fertility
Believe it or not, many people don’t consider this factor, but it’s true that a lot of babies are conceived in the Spring. One thing rabbits do is symbolize fertility celebrations that happened around the same time as Easter in the Spring during the 1700’s in Germany. The earth also has a reproduction period every year, and rabbits are also one of the main things that symbolize this, since rabbits can literally get pregnant just a couple hours after they give birth. They also only take about a month of being pregnant to have babies.
The German Influence
In the early 1500’s, there were legends of this tradition over in Germany. It really didn’t make its way into the commercialized form that we have today until about the 1700’s when German immigrants migrated here and brought their tradition of Osterhase, which is egg laying rabbits (so that’s where Cadbury gets it from). In Germany, children used to make nests for the rabbit to leave its colored eggs in. Eventually, commercialization came into play and started replacing the nests for baskets. Over time, they would leave things like carrots out for the bunny, and then it brought more gifts. Eventually, chocolate, small toys, and candy started to replace the eggs and eventually it became the holiday we’re used to today.
Why Eggs?
Eggs, right up there with rabbits are a sign of fertility. Therefore, eventually, eggs and the Easter Bunny were brought together to make their own legend by combining these two symbols (rabbits and eggs) to bring good boys and girls presents like a “second Christmas”.
Ostara, the Ancient Goddess
The Osterhase (or Easter Bunny as we call it here in America), was brought upon the name by Ostara, who was the Goddess of Fertility in and around the 1300s before Christianity became prominent in Germany. She held festivals which had numerous egg laying bunnies that celebrated the Spring Equinox. They also had chickens that laid eggs of different colors. Since the rabbit was Ostara’s sacred animal, this is one story that has been told over years of folklore.
Conclusion
Despite the legends, and the way that the Catholic Church decided to combine both Pagan and German Catholic traditions, nobody really knows why or how the origins of the Easter Bunny really came about. It just kind of happened. And just like other Holidays, it became something that could be marketed into what we know today. To this day, there are not very many churches that don’t associate Easter with the Bible, but they do accept that the Easter Bunny (a Pagan figure) as a general part of Easter.
