The Easter Bunny and its Introduction into a Religious Holiday
Christmas is the only Christian holiday that is more important than Easter. Easter is an occasion that Christians have celebrated for hundreds of years. Many people wonder why everyone associates this occasion nowadays with colored eggs and bunnies. After all, what do the Easter bunny and eggs have to do with the ascension of Christ?
To learn how this relationship came about, you have to travel way back in time. Since life is starting to appear in the spring, it has long been a time of celebration in many religions. Crops are growing, and baby animals are born. Even ancient pagans celebrated the coming of spring. In the Saxon culture, a fertility goddess called Eastre was given her own festival. Rabbits become associated with the celebration prominently thanks to their reputation of being very fertile creatures.
During the 2nd century A.D., Christian missionaries travelled trying to convert the pagan people to their religion. In order to attract new members to the religion, the missionaries adapted pagan festivals and customs into Christian holidays. Since the festival of Eastre occurred at the same time of the year as the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, it was only natural that the two be combined into one holiday which included the sacred rabbit.
Eastre was changed to Easter over the years. The rabbit and the lamb came to symbolize innocent creatures that were sacrificed to commemorate the sacrifice Christ made for man.
You would have to go back to the 1500s in Germany to find the origins of the Easter bunny as we know it today. Children believed that they would receive a basket full of colored eggs from a magical rabbit if they were good during this time. This was a custom which Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants brought to the new world during the 1700s.
People have considered eggs to be a sign of rebirth since the earliest years A.D.. The eggs which are an integral part of the celebration dating back to the 600s when Pope Gregory the Great banned the consumption of eggs for the entire period of Lent. Therefore, when Easter arrived and people could eat eggs again, they considered them a special treat. Although some guidelines of old are no longer followed, we still make use of decorated eggs as part of Easter celebrations. Doc No.azlcssaeh-sdgfhkl
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