Easter Bunny Origin

Today, the Easter Bunny is a familiar part of many Easter celebrations. He comes the night before Easter and hides eggs and candy for good children. But how did the Easter Bunny tradition get started? The roots can can be traced back to pre-Christian times.

Many ancient cultures celebrated the coming of spring, and it's thought that Easter got its name from the Anglo-Saxon fertility goddess Eastre (also spelled Eostre, Ostare, Ostara and other variations). This connection was first mentioned by the Christian scholar Bede, who wrote in his book "De Ratione Temporum" that Easter was named after Eostre. She was the mother goddess of the Saxon people in northern Europe who represented spring and fertility, as life is reborn every spring after the cold winter.

A festival was held each spring in Ostara's honor, and she was often shown in the company of a rabbit, which was a symbol of fertility. Some accounts say that the Saxons revered rabbits as the earthly incarnation of Ostara.

Eggs, too, have long been recognized as symbols of fertility and life. But how rabbits and eggs became intertwined in the myth of an Easter Bunny who brings gifts to children seems a bit unclear. An article about the history of Easter on About.com says, "The custom of an Easter egg hunt began because children believed that hares laid eggs in the grass. The Romans believed that 'All life comes from an egg.'" Another article from the National Zoo says there are several myths about Ostara and her rabbits. "According to one story, Ostara transformed a pet bird into a rabbit to entertain some children, and the rabbit proceeded to lay colored eggs that the goddess then gave to the kids. In another version, a small girl asked the goddess to save a bird... The goddess saved the bird by turning it into a rabbit, which produced colored eggs."

So the tradition of an egg-giving rabbit started in Europe and was later brought to America by German settlers. Germans can also take credit for creating candy Easter bunnies. According to Wikipedia, the first edible bunnies were made in the early 1800s in Germany and were made of pastry and sugar.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Today the Easter Bunny legend continues to delight children in many countries who anxiously await the arrival of the giant bunny who brings colored eggs and goodies.