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| Easter bunny or hare with eggs. |
The Easter Bunny or Easter Rabbit is a character depicted as a rabbit bringing Easter eggs,
who sometimes is depicted with clothes. In legend, the creature carries
colored eggs in his basket, candy and sometimes also toys to the homes
of children, and as such shows similarities to Santa Claus, as they both bring gifts to children on the night before their respective holiday. It was first mentioned in Georg Franck von Frankenau's De ovis paschalibus (About Easter Eggs) in 1682 referring to an Alsace tradition of an Easter Hare bringing Easter Eggs.
The hare was a popular motif in medieval church art. In ancient times it was widely believed (as by Pliny, Plutarch, Philostratus and Aelian) that the hare was a hermaphrodite. The idea that a hare could reproduce without loss of virginity led to an association with the Virgin Mary, with hares sometimes occurring in illuminated manuscripts and Northern European paintings of the Virgin and Christ Child. It may also have been associated with the Holy Trinity, as in the three hares motif, representing the "One in Three and Three in One"
of which the triangle or three interlocking shapes such as rings are
common symbols. In England, this motif usually appears in a prominent
place in the church, such as the central rib of the chancel roof, or on a central rib of the nave.
This suggests that the symbol held significance to the church, and
casts doubt on the theory that they may have been masons' or carpenters'
signature marks.
Eggs, like rabbits and hares, are fertility symbols of antiquity. Since birds
lay eggs and rabbits and hares give birth to large litters in the early
spring, these became symbols of the rising fertility of the earth at
the March Equinox.
Rabbits and hares are both prolific breeders. Female hares can
conceive a second litter of offspring while still pregnant with the
first. This phenomenon is known as superfetation. Lagomorphs
mature sexually at an early age and can give birth to several litters a
year (hence the saying, "to breed like bunnies"). It is therefore not
surprising that rabbits and hares should become fertility symbols, or
that their springtime mating antics should enter into Easter folklore.
The precise origin of the ancient custom of decorating eggs
is not known, although evidently the blooming of many flowers in spring
coincides with the use of the fertility symbol of eggs—and 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 an egg-laying bunny came to the U.S. in the 18th century. German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children about the "Osterhase" (sometimes spelled "Oschter Haws"). "hase" means "hare", not rabbit, 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 the reconstructed continental
Germanic goddess ostara.
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