Easter Bunny

M

Michael

歌舞伎
Valued Senior Member
Happy Easter!!

The Pagan origins of the Easter Bunny
Have you ever wondered where the celebration of the Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Christ acquired its unusual name and odd symbols of colored eggs and rabbits?

The answer lies in the ingenious way that the Christian church absorbed Pagan practices. After discovering that people were more reluctant to give up their holidays and festivals than their gods, they simply incorporated Pagan practices into Christian festivals. As recounted by the Venerable Bede, an early Christian writer, clever clerics copied Pagan practices and by doing so, made Christianity more palatable to pagan folk reluctant to give up their festivals for somber Christian practices.
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I find it interesting that many Xians don't make the connection between Spring Equinox/Vernal Equinox and Jesus Resurrection, (nor Winter Solis and His birth for that matter).

How ironic is that? Spring Equinox, a natural occurring celestial event marked by holiday the world over by celebrating renewal JUST HAPPENS to coincide with, guess what, Jesus’s resurrection and renewal!!

Even a Xian Apologist seems to think so . .
As it happened , the pagan festival of Eastre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ.
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Imagine that! :D

Lucky Days, Lucky Days!

Pagan fertility festivals at the time of the Spring equinox were common- it was believed that at this time, when day and night were of equal length, male and female energies were also in balance. The hare is often associated with moon goddesses; the egg and the hare together represent the god and the goddess, respectively.

Moving forward fifteen hundred years, we find ourselves in Germany, where children await the arrival of Oschter Haws, a rabbit who will lay colored eggs in nests to the delight of children who discover them Easter morning. It was this German tradition that popularized the 'Easter bunny' in America, when introduced into the American cultural fabric by German settlers in Pennsylvania.
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Not to mention that if you do business during the daytime (such as crucifying or hearings etc..) you HAVE to end with an odd number of days plus nights. Try to count 3 days and 3 nights between FriDAY and SunDAY!
 
I believe most spring time celebrations have a fertility aspect to it and colored eggs are no exception.

From above:
In second century Europe, the predominate spring festival was a raucous Saxon fertility celebration in honor of the Saxon Goddess Eastre (Ostara), whose sacred animal was a hare.

The colored eggs associated with the bunny are of another, even more ancient origin. The eggs associated with this and other Vernal festivals have been symbols of rebirth and fertility for so long the precise roots of the tradition are unknown, and may date to the beginning of human civilization. Ancient Romans and Greeks used eggs as symbols of fertility, rebirth, and abundance- eggs were solar symbols, and figured in the festivals of numerous resurrected gods.
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That may be of pagans' symbolism. But what is the christian interpretation for the easter eggs, boiled ones ?
 
Basically it's just fun to hide some eggs and let children search for them. It gives parents a chance to bond on their day off (well here in AU anyway) and probably re-live their own childhood via their kids.

So, there is no modern meaning other than whay one makes of it.
 
This is old news. Of course Christ's birthday - which nobody really knows the date of - will be put on top of a pagan holiday for convenience. I see nothing surprising about it.
 
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