Stores in the United States are preparing for the upcoming holiday, Easter. They are filling up with candies, Easter eggs, Easter baskets and toys. However, the main focus is on the Easter Bunny. How did it become the face of Easter?
It is said that the Easter bunny has pagan roots that are associated with the Anglo-Saxon goddess named Eostre or Eastre. She is the goddess of dawn, spring, fertility and rebirth. The hare was her sacred animal, which was seen as a symbol of new life. The Easter Bunny, originally known as the “Oschter Haws” or Easter hare, came from old German folklore. It’s explained that the hare would visit the homes of good children the day before Easter to leave them a nest of colored eggs. There’s another legend about a poor woman who decorated eggs and hid them from her children in her garden. After the children had found the colored eggs, they saw a large hare hop away.
This tradition was brought to North America in the 1700s by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania and spread their tradition. Soon, this tradition spread throughout the United States, even changing the hare to the more common bunny rabbit. Instead of the nest of eggs, it got switched to decorated baskets, which included chocolates, toys and other types of candy.
The Easter Bunny is celebrated in North America, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, France and South America. In Australia and New Zealand, instead of the Easter Bunny, they changed it to the Easter Bilby, an indigenous marsupial that has become a symbol of Easter with efforts to protect the endangered species. In France, the Easter Bunny was replaced with the “Les Cloches de Paques,” which means the flying Easter bells. The bells would fly to Rome to be blessed by the Pope and then return to France to scatter eggs and other candies. In Switzerland, they do have the Easter Bunny, though the easter cuckoo symbolizes spring and is associated more with delivering easter eggs. The children in Switzerland participate in Easter egg hunts and decorating eggs. In South Africa, the Easter bunny delivers chocolate and eggs to children, while the children hunt for eggs.
