SHELBY FLOWERS 9TH

What Does the Easter Bunny Have to Do With Easter?

            Have you ever asked yourself what the heck does the Easter Bunny have to do with the true celebration and meaning of Easter?  Well it has nothing and yet everything to do with Easter.  A soft, furry small little creature is never mentioned in the Bible as having to do with the Resurrection of Christ, but we as humans crave the need to develop an idea or tradition to accompany most holidays and we did.  Pagans roots were so developed to incorporate such things to accompany the holiday that it was done so with the true meaning completely separate from that of the actually celebration of the Rising of Christ. Researchers have traced the origin of celebrating Easter with bunnies, eggs, baby yellow chicks to early 13^th century pre-Christian Germany.  It was at this time that people worshipped many different gods and goddesses.  The Goddess of Spring, Teutonic deity Eostra, was honored with feasts for her fertility and it was held during the Vernal Equinox.  The rabbit was her symbol because of their ability to reproduce very fast.  Because Spring offers the excitement of new life and rebirth, it has been compared to the resurrection of Jesus. 

Analysis: 

Trace Dominguez uncovers that the connection of the resurrection of Christ and the furry bunny that we use to symbolize Easter share a common idea.  Fertility and rebirth during the early part of spring.  Jesus was resurrected and the bunny reproduces at a high rate.  He points out that both symbolize the idea that spring holds the rebirth of something beautiful and innocent.  The first Easter bunny was documented in the 1500s.  Soon after the stories began to develop about a bunny laying eggs in the spring and hiding them in a garden.  It wasn’t until the 1700s that the United States began to recognize the holiday with the bunny and eggs.

I personally could not imagine having or celebrating Easter without both the bunny and eggs and the resurrection of Christ being a part of the day.  We start off the day in church recognizing and celebrating how Jesus gave his life for our sins and then was resurrected to walk out of a tomb and into the heavens to be our personal savior and keeper of all that is right.  We are literally given the chance every day to change our lives and to accept that there is only one God and that he gave his son to die for our mortal sins.  We take the bunny as a symbol that is soft, like the body of Christ and the eggs that represent the rebirth, which is the resurrection of Christ and we make them go together for the sake of helping young children understand what message we want to convey about the holiday.  It is simple…just believe in both!

Article Link:

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