Who Put the Bunny in Easter?

It is interesting to me that our modern holiday symbols and celebrations

are rooted in traditions that are centuries old.

So I felt compelled to research Easter, assuming I would be enlightened.

And I was...

It seems that Easter bunnies, colored eggs, candy, baked goods, and sunrise services

are another example of pre-Christian pagan traditions retained in newer Christian ones.

For example, according to DNews Editors at this link:

http://news.discovery.com/history/what-does-easter-bunny-come-have-to-do-easter-120406.html

the tradition we call Easter began in the 13th century in pre-Christian Germany

with the worship of the goddess Eostra.

I think Wikipedia explains this connection better

because they have extended quotes from Jacob Grimm,

commonly recognized as the compiler of fairy tales,

but  also a philologist, a respected scholar who studied language and learning.

Here is Wikipedia's excerpt from Grimm's 1835  "Deutsche Mythologie": 

Ostara, Eástre seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted by the resurrection-day of the christian's God. Bonfires were lighted at Easter and according to popular belief of long standing, the moment the sun rises on Easter Sunday morning, he gives three joyful leaps, he dances for joy ... Water drawn on the Easter morning is, like that at Christmas, holy and healing ... here also heathen notions seems to have grafted themselves on great christian festivals. Maidens clothed in white, who at Easter, at the season of returning spring, show themselves in clefts of the rock and on mountains, are suggestive of the ancient goddess.^[9]

and as for the eggs, candies, and pastries, Grimm writes:

The heathen Easter had much in common with May-feast

and the reception of spring,

particularly in matter of bonfires.

Then, through long ages there seem to have lingered among the people

Easter-games so-called, which the church itself had to tolerate :

I allude especially to the custom of Easter eggs,

and to the Easter tale which preachers told from the pulpit

for the people's amusement,

connecting it with Christian reminiscences.^[10] 

Grimm comments on further Easter time customs,

including unique sword dances

and particular baked goods ("pastry of heathenish form").

Read more of the Wikipedia article here:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre

But, one may ask, where is the Easter bunny in all this?

Here is a paraphrase of  information about the egg-bringing bunny

I found on the website http://www.iloveindia.com/ of all places.

According to the web site:

Eostre, the goddess of the dawn and fertility,

found an injured bird one bitterly cold winter, so she changed the bird

into a hare so that it could recuperate better. But the hare retained

some of its true nature--the egg-laying part. After the hare was well again,

it  always layed eggs and colored them to give to the goddess as a gift of gratitude.

Much of the Easter tradition is rooted in concepts of fertility, re-birth, and joy.

Whichever tradition you ascribe to, 

Easter is a lovely way to mark the new life of spring.

~

Tomorrow I will show you some of the joyful  Easter traditions

one can see around the Shire.

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