Easter is the most important feast day on the Christian calendar: a celebration centered around Jesus Christ rising from the dead. So, what does egg-hiding, floppy-eared bunnies and chocolate have to do with any of that?
Such symbols are sometimes written off as a sort of paganistic residue, left over from before Christianity swept across Europe.
But that’s probably not true — or, at least, not entirely true.
Eostre is frequently cited as a pre-Christian Germanic spring goddess (who hung out with a rabbit, no less). Early Christians are said to have co-opted her festival’s symbols and rituals — and even her name! But the only documentary evidence for this goddess exists in early medieval monk and scholar Bede the Venerable’s telling.
The evidence for Eostre-worship being the basis of Easter traditions is thin, at best, as the Guardian’s Adrian Bott previously asserted. It’s not that it’s impossible that Eostre was indeed a popular pagan goddess, or that such pre-Christian influences survive today — it’s just that there’s really not much concrete to base that assertion on.
Historians in the 19th and 20th century often argued that most medieval Christians were actually just thinly veiled pagans. However, that trend has changed in recent years. As English historian Ronald Hutton put it in his article “How Pagan Were Medieval English Peasants?“: “… there is no good evidence for a survival of active paganism among the English population after the early eleventh century.”
That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some strange and unusual beginnings for some of Easter’s most popular symbols, however.
Here are some popular Easter symbols with surprising origins:
#1 Bunnies are ancient symbols of fertility
Medieval folks couldn’t get enough of bunnies. They’re a frequent theme in illuminated manuscripts and other art from the Middle Ages.
Ancient scholars like Pliny the Elder and Artistotle wrote about hares and their propensity for fertility (as the Smithsonian reported, Aristotle actually was right when he proposed that rabbits can get pregnant while they’re pregnant).
Due to this potential for double pregnancies, as English polymath Sir Thomas Browne wrote, hares were also long believed to be hermaphroditic — and, therefore, capable of virgin births. That led to an association with the Virgin Mary. The sign of the three hares appears in medieval Christian art as well, symbolizing the Trinity.
So it’s not surprising that the hare became especially associated with Easter in Germany by the 17th century. As History.com reported, it was likely German immigrants who brought the idea of the Easter bunny to America in the 1700s.
Eggs have represented new life for centuries… for obvious reasons
Every Easter, children embark on hunts for candy and chocolate enclosed in colourful plastic eggs. It’s a bit like the tradition of waking up to presents on Christmas morning, except with more sugar and running around.
The history of egg symbolism goes back centuries. As Forbes reported, ‘In pagan times, eggs were part of the Bacchic or Dinoysian mysteries, possibly a symbol of the underworld; they could be used to cast spells and, conversely, to offer protection.’
Later on, eggs became a symbol of rebirth for Christians.
Easter eggs first got a shout out in a book aptly titled ‘De ovis paschalibus’ (or, ‘About Easter eggs’). As the book ‘Thinking Like an Anthropologist‘ says, the 1682 book refers to ‘… an Alsace tradition of an Easter Hare bringing Easter Eggs.’
Even eating junk on Easter is tied to history
So, why do we stuff ourselves with chocolate eggs on Easter?
Well, as the medieval blog ‘A Medievalist Errant’ points out, Easter takes place at the end of Lent, a 40-day period of fasting and contemplation for Christians.
Fasting was a bit more intense in the medieval world. Meat and animal products (including eggs and dairy) would have been off-limits for all of Lent for most people. Once Easter hit, people would celebrate with a feast, which might even take place at the home of the local lord.
So, while the eating yourself into a choc-induced coma on Easter is certainly a modern concept, the idea of indulging once Lent ends dates back quite a while.
This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.
Comments
3 responses to “The Easter Bunny Explained”
What a load of self-contradictory, theologically unsound, ahistorical rubbish.
Don’t hold back tell us what you really think.
Easter and Christmas weren’t regarded as any real import as late as the early 20th century. They may have some real basis in early Christianity, but it was never that big of a deal throughout the last couple of hundred years or even longer. It has only become something people celebrate now because of, (yes I’m back here again) advertising. Early on in the peace, companies subverted those symbols to make money. It all comes down to the all-hallowed coin and how beast to draw people in, in order to get more out of them.
Probably prodded in the early 20th century by confectionary companies.
I read that children would search for real eggs, perhaps painted eggs or something, but that would have been boring.
Bit like Mothers Day being hijacked by greeting card manufacturers and department stores.
Or Valentine’s Day being invented, due to a lack of sales between Christmas and Easter.
A result of commercialization or not, as long as it takes the focus away from the whole resurrection BS i’m happy.