What’s Up With the Easter Bunny Anyway?
March 24, 2008 7:07 am Random Gripings
I have to admit that ever since I found out that Santa, the Easter Bunny, and all the other characters we are led to believe in aren’t real, I was always most curious about the bunny. I mean c’mon…a bunny that lays eggs? Seems a little weird.
Or maybe what really happens is that the Easter Bunny steals the eggs from the Thanksgiving Turkey and hoards them until Easter. Maybe it’s some long standing vendetta they have against each other. Who knows.
Honestly though, who came up with the whole Easter Bunny idea? I mean, when you look at some of the other characters like Santa, they at least somewhat make sense. Even from a religious standpoint you can kinda see where Santa comes from, especially when you think of him as Saint Nicholas. But the Easter Bunny? What does a psycho egg laying bunny rabbit have to do with what Easter is really all about - the Resurrection of Jesus Christ?
It’s official…this one has me baffled. Any ideas?
Resisting Candy Urges - This is Tough!
tags: confusion, gripings, holidays
i’m tempted to google it, but that would ruin the fun. it’s probably a bunny because that’s friendly for the kids. they could hardly use a shark or something… Bill and Teds Bogus Journey ruined the whole bunny thing for me when i was a kid anyway!
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I was thinking of that Bill and Ted bunny too when I wrote this post. I almost posted the clip, but it still creeps me out…
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Hmmm, let’s think what’s more child-friendly: the ressurection of a Jewish sky-god zombie who is somehow his own father, or a cute little bunny laying eggs? These holidays need to have mass appeal, and the children are a major demographic group.
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I thought the easter bunny just hid the eggs. Not laid them.
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Yes. You have a good point there. It doenst seem connected at all. Haha. Let’s go all the way back to history of easter bunny. If you ever find out why, lemme know at YM joyfulpretty.
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Its quite funny that a bunny can lay eggs. Why do you believe in that anyway?
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Ahh, such easter folklore at hand…
Eggs, like rabbits and hares (which are both prolific breeders), are fertility symbols of antiquity.
The precise origin of the ancient custom of coloring eggs is not known, although evidently the blooming of many flowers in spring coincides with the use of the fertility symbol of eggs; eggs boiled with some flowers change their color, bringing the spring into the homes. Many Christians of the Eastern Orthodox Church to this day typically dye their Easter eggs red, 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.
German Protestants wanted to retain the Catholic custom of eating colored eggs for Easter, but did not want to introduce their children to the Catholic rite of fasting. Eggs were forbidden to Catholics during the fast of Lent, which was the reason for the abundance of eggs at Easter time.
The idea of the preposterous egg-laying bunny came to the U.S. in the 18th century. …And in Northwest European folklore the “Easter Bunny” indeed is a hare, not a rabbit. 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. In 1835, Jakob Grimm wrote of long-standing similar myths in Germany itself. Grimm suggested that these derived from legends of a goddess called Ostara, but as a romanticist, he tried to connect contemporary customs to pre-Christian traditions, knowing that no written sources of that time existed.
Blah, blah, blah…
—Myths, Legends, & Folklore
What’s up with the Easter Bunny anyway? Uh, it’s just more baloney they can use to market and monetize to the point of insanity! Cheers!
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