Have You Ever Wondered How a Rabbit Came to Symbolize Easter?

[Ava]

I used to wonder why a rabbit? Or an egg for that matter, came to be the face of Easter and now I have the history of both or at least the manufactured history of both. Anyway, my childhood memories of the Easter Egg Hunt play a happy role in my memories, and I hope you enjoyed that traditional fun when you were a kidlet. Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny’s Origins: The Interesting History Behind This Easter Symbol

The Easter Bunny origin story is more mysterious than you might imagine, and religion seems to have nothing to do with it.

www.rd.com

 

[playtime]

 

[playtime]

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[playtime]

gotta say chocolate bunny ears ROCK!

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

I used to wonder why a rabbit? Or an egg for that matter, came to be the face of Easter and now I have the history of both or at least the manufactured history of both. Anyway, my childhood memories of the Easter Egg Hunt play a happy role in my memories, and I hope you enjoyed that traditional fun when you were a kidlet. Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny’s Origins: The Interesting History Behind This Easter Symbol

The Easter Bunny origin story is more mysterious than you might imagine, and religion seems to have nothing to do with it.

www.rd.com

Well, does seem to be a number of stories surrounding Easter, I snipped some of the bunny stuff:



Ēostre - Wikipedia

Connection to Easter Hares​

An Easter postcard from 1907 depicting a rabbit

In Northern Europe, Easter imagery often involves hares and rabbits.[34] The first scholar to make a connection between the goddess Eostre and hares was Adolf Holtzmann in his book Deutsche Mythologie. Holtzmann wrote of the tradition, "the Easter Hare is inexplicable to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara; just as there is a hare on the statue of Abnoba." Citing folk Easter customs in Leicestershire, England, where "the profits of the land called Harecrop Leys were applied to providing a meal which was thrown on the ground at the 'Hare-pie Bank'", late 19th-century scholar Charles Isaac Elton speculated on a connection between these customs and the worship of Ēostre.[35] In his late 19th-century study of the hare in folk custom and mythology, Charles J. Billson cited numerous incidents of folk customs involving hares around the Easter season in Northern Europe. Billson said that "whether there was a goddess named Ēostre, or not, and whatever connection the hare may have had with the ritual of Saxon or British worship, there are good grounds for believing that the sacredness of this animal reaches back into an age still more remote, where it is probably a very important part of the great Spring Festival of the prehistoric inhabitants of this island."[24]

Adolf Holtzmann had also speculated that "the hare must once have been a bird, because it lays eggs" in modern German folklore. From this statement, numerous later sources built a modern legend in which the goddess Eostre transformed a bird into an egg-laying hare.[36] A response to a question about the origins of Easter hares in the 8 June 1889 issue of the journal American Notes and Queries stated: "In Germany and among the Pennsylvania Germans toy rabbits or hares made of canton flannel stuffed with cotton are given as gifts on Easter morning. The children are told that this Osh’ter has laid the Easter eggs. This curious idea is thus explained: The hare was originally a bird, and was changed into a quadruped by the goddess Ostara; in gratitude to Ostara or Eastre, the hare exercises its original bird function to lay eggs for the goddess on her festal day."[37] According to folklorist Stephen Winick, by 1900, many popular sources had picked up the story of Eostre and the hare. One described the story as one of the oldest in mythology

 

[Ava]

gotta say chocolate bunny ears ROCK!

Marshmellow-filled real chocolate is indeed a fave of mine and low in calories. Remember the Rocky Road candy bar? One of the lowest-in-calorie delicious candy bars. I never notice them anymore on the shelves of grocery stores.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

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Gotta say my favorite memory was saving dyed egg shells and smashing them into little pieces, and making colorful mosaic art pieces, mostly in the shape of Gothic Cathedral windows.

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[Ava]

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Gotta say my favorite memory was saving dyed egg shells and smashing them into little pieces, and making colorful mosaic art pieces, mostly in the shape of Gothic Cathedral windows.

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Beautiful and creative idea! I'm reminded of my many lamps which are art-glass in the Tyffany style. Love the ambiance they bring to my world of art-filled rooms.

Did you ever dye brown eggs for Easter? I did that several times after discovering the difference in results of dying white eggs for years. The colors turn out much deeper with brown eggs than the pretty pastel-colored white ones. Both ways, though, turn white eggs into glorious colors.

 

[MisterBeale]

Well, does seem to be a number of stories surrounding Easter, I snipped some of the bunny stuff:



Ēostre - Wikipedia

Connection to Easter Hares​

An Easter postcard from 1907 depicting a rabbit

In Northern Europe, Easter imagery often involves hares and rabbits.[34] The first scholar to make a connection between the goddess Eostre and hares was Adolf Holtzmann in his book Deutsche Mythologie. Holtzmann wrote of the tradition, "the Easter Hare is inexplicable to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara; just as there is a hare on the statue of Abnoba." Citing folk Easter customs in Leicestershire, England, where "the profits of the land called Harecrop Leys were applied to providing a meal which was thrown on the ground at the 'Hare-pie Bank'", late 19th-century scholar Charles Isaac Elton speculated on a connection between these customs and the worship of Ēostre.[35] In his late 19th-century study of the hare in folk custom and mythology, Charles J. Billson cited numerous incidents of folk customs involving hares around the Easter season in Northern Europe. Billson said that "whether there was a goddess named Ēostre, or not, and whatever connection the hare may have had with the ritual of Saxon or British worship, there are good grounds for believing that the sacredness of this animal reaches back into an age still more remote, where it is probably a very important part of the great Spring Festival of the prehistoric inhabitants of this island."[24]

Adolf Holtzmann had also speculated that "the hare must once have been a bird, because it lays eggs" in modern German folklore. From this statement, numerous later sources built a modern legend in which the goddess Eostre transformed a bird into an egg-laying hare.[36] A response to a question about the origins of Easter hares in the 8 June 1889 issue of the journal American Notes and Queries stated: "In Germany and among the Pennsylvania Germans toy rabbits or hares made of canton flannel stuffed with cotton are given as gifts on Easter morning. The children are told that this Osh’ter has laid the Easter eggs. This curious idea is thus explained: The hare was originally a bird, and was changed into a quadruped by the goddess Ostara; in gratitude to Ostara or Eastre, the hare exercises its original bird function to lay eggs for the goddess on her festal day."[37] According to folklorist Stephen Winick, by 1900, many popular sources had picked up the story of Eostre and the hare. One described the story as one of the oldest in mythology

Yeah. . I quoted directly from footnote number 36 previously this year.


"This version of the goddess appeared in Vermont’s Windham County Reformer, April 8, 1887."

Ēostre - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In response to Holly B, and contrary to Family Christmas Online, a few weeks ago I traced versions of the story back to the June 8, 1889 issue of the journal American Notes and Queries, page 64:

Unfortunately, this reference was given as an answer to someone’s question, with no source cited. So although I had traced it back over a century, I still didn’t know where it came from with any certainty. Nevertheless, I expressed my “best guess”:

Now I’m able to report some more definitive sources. First, a very similar report to the one in American Notes and Queries appeared as a note by H. Krebs in the first volume of the English journal Folk-Lore in 1883, but this time with a citation:

Ostara and the Hare: Not Ancient, but Not As Modern As Some Skeptics Think | Folklife Today

If you’re curious about modern holiday beliefs and calendar customs, you might be reading or doing research about them online. Chances are, you come across some stories that the presenters claim are ancient, and reach into the pre-Christian past. One popular story you might have seen recently...

blogs.loc.gov

https://www.usmessageboard.com/threads/easter-hare-or-rabbit-or-bunny-or-osterhase.1090592/post-34005273

 

[Alan Stallion]

No, Easter Is Not Named after Ishtar - Tales of Times Forgotten

Around this time of year it is common to see people sharing memes claiming that Easter is really an ancient pre-Christian pagan holiday that was hijacked by Christians. I wrote an article all the way back in April 2017 debunking some of the more general claims that you often hear about various...

talesoftimesforgotten.com

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

Beautiful and creative idea! I'm reminded of my many lamps which are art-glass in the Tyffany style. Love the ambiance they bring to my world of art-filled rooms.

Did you ever dye brown eggs for Easter? I did that several times after discovering the difference in results of dying white eggs for years. The colors turn out much deeper with brown eggs than the pretty pastel-colored white ones. Both ways, though, turn white eggs into glorious colors.

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No, I have never tried dying brown eggs.

Maybe I'll volunteer to teach the kids in my church how to do a project like this! If I remember right, the teacher gave us a printed outline of a Gothic window and we chose the colors to use to fill in the spaces, and glued in the eggshell chips. I think this was about when I was seven.

The kids would love putting their works of art on the bulletin boards in their classes!

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[Zebra]

Well, does seem to be a number of stories surrounding Easter, I snipped some of the bunny stuff:



Ēostre - Wikipedia

Connection to Easter Hares​

An Easter postcard from 1907 depicting a rabbit

In Northern Europe, Easter imagery often involves hares and rabbits.[34] The first scholar to make a connection between the goddess Eostre and hares was Adolf Holtzmann in his book Deutsche Mythologie. Holtzmann wrote of the tradition, "the Easter Hare is inexplicable to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara; just as there is a hare on the statue of Abnoba." Citing folk Easter customs in Leicestershire, England, where "the profits of the land called Harecrop Leys were applied to providing a meal which was thrown on the ground at the 'Hare-pie Bank'", late 19th-century scholar Charles Isaac Elton speculated on a connection between these customs and the worship of Ēostre.[35] In his late 19th-century study of the hare in folk custom and mythology, Charles J. Billson cited numerous incidents of folk customs involving hares around the Easter season in Northern Europe. Billson said that "whether there was a goddess named Ēostre, or not, and whatever connection the hare may have had with the ritual of Saxon or British worship, there are good grounds for believing that the sacredness of this animal reaches back into an age still more remote, where it is probably a very important part of the great Spring Festival of the prehistoric inhabitants of this island."[24]

Adolf Holtzmann had also speculated that "the hare must once have been a bird, because it lays eggs" in modern German folklore. From this statement, numerous later sources built a modern legend in which the goddess Eostre transformed a bird into an egg-laying hare.[36] A response to a question about the origins of Easter hares in the 8 June 1889 issue of the journal American Notes and Queries stated: "In Germany and among the Pennsylvania Germans toy rabbits or hares made of canton flannel stuffed with cotton are given as gifts on Easter morning. The children are told that this Osh’ter has laid the Easter eggs. This curious idea is thus explained: The hare was originally a bird, and was changed into a quadruped by the goddess Ostara; in gratitude to Ostara or Eastre, the hare exercises its original bird function to lay eggs for the goddess on her festal day."[37] According to folklorist Stephen Winick, by 1900, many popular sources had picked up the story of Eostre and the hare. One described the story as one of the oldest in mythology

well said!

 

[Zebra]

Long live Goddess Abnoba!