Easter Bunny?

Question

Why does the easter bunny deliver eggs?

Answer 1

Easter celebrations were held hundreds of years before Christ was born as festivals of spring honoring Eostre, the great mother goddess of the Saxons. This name was fashioned after the ancient word for spring, Eastre. The goddess Ostara was the Norse equivalent whose symbols were the hare and the egg. From this comes our modern tradition of celebrating Easter with eggs and bunnies.

In the Mediterranean region, there was a pre-Christian spring celebration centered around the vernal equinox (March 20 or 21) that honored Cybele, the Phrygian goddess of fertility. Cybele’s consort, Attis, was considered born of a virgin and was believed to have died and been resurrected three days later. Attis derived his mythology from even earlier gods, Osiris, Dionysus, and Orpheus, who also were supposed to have been born of a virgin and suffered death and resurrection as long as 500 years before Christ was born. The death of Attis was commemorated on a Friday and the resurrection was celebrated three days later on Sunday.

There are other Easter traditions that are pagan in origin. The Easter sunrise service is derived from the ancient pagan practice of welcoming the sun on the morning of the spring equinox, marking the beginning of spring. What we now call Easter lilies were revered by the ancients as symbols of fertility and representative of the male genitalia. The ancient Babylonian religions had rituals involving dyed eggs as did the ancient Egyptians.

The Christian version of Easter is celebrated after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Modern day neo-pagans usually have their spring celebrations on the day of the equinox. Either way, these celebrations have gone on every year continuously for over 2500 years.

Answer 2

There was a time when Christianity pretty much overtly decided to absorb and twist all the existing beliefs and religions so it was easier to convert the local believers. This is an old trick from ancient Rome, which used to do the same thing with gods rather regularly.

You can see signs of this phase of Christianity all over, if you know where to look. One is the blending of voodoo and Christian mysticism that can still be found in certain regions. Another is ornate pagan equal-sided crosses that were just tacked onto equally ornate poles and called Christian symbols. And one is in the placement and symbology used in popular Christian holidays.

Pagan spring fertility rites were once very nearly ubiquitous. Nature is coming back into bloom and people celebrated it with things that they associated with fertility. One rather obvious symbol is that of the egg. To a primitive mind, the egg is almost magickal - it seems inanimate, yet when cared for properly it produces life.

So, too with the rabbit. Or, more properly the HARE. Rabbits and hares both have famous rates of reproduction. It's not by accident that Playboy magazine uses bunny ears for their logo, after all. Hares in addition have a very unique distinction - they are the only animal born with OPEN eyes. Again, to a primitive mind this speaks of something truly remarkable... a creature that has seen what no other creature has witnessed, and perhaps carries knowledge not only of the pre-birth, but perhaps of pre-life. Hares thereafter were seen as very totemic and powerful, and to this day many people carry their feet for good luck even if they usually don't know why.

So here we have two very popular and powerful symbols of fertility and of life as a whole: the egg and the hare (well... the rabbit these days... who can tell the difference between a rabbit and a hare anyway?). We can only credit human ingenuity with COMBINING the two symbols into a bunny that actually brings or lays easter eggs. And Christians just absorbed those ideas and hauled them along with Easter, the new (and in many places and times ONLY) sanctioned spring-time event.

Answer 3

Faintly ridiculous. It replaced into by no potential a bunny contained in the first position - it got here from Germany the position they nonetheless have the Easter Hare. there's no information of any link to paganism besides the undeniable fact that it is not an rather Christian idea both. that is a people custom, about four hundred to 500 years previous. the most likely clarification is that hares do not burrow, they make "varieties" or nests which look similar to fowl's nests so the myth (or previous comic tale) that hares lay eggs developed. Eggs are linked with Easter because they weren't eaten for the duration of Lent and/or because they kind area of the Jewish Passover meal - Easter's roots are contained in the Jewish Passover, not any invented pagan pageant.

Answer 4

Which takes more faith to believe: that Christ is still alive, or that bunnies lay eggs? Easter with it's fertility symbols of eggs and rabbits is a pagan ritual and can be a great and fun diversion for those who don't want to think about Jesus on that day.

Answer 5

Because it is called Easter bunny. Ha Ha.

Answer 6

why wouldn't the Easter bunny deliver eggs what else would it deliver and it also delivers them because he has nu-thing better to do

Answer 7

if a bunny laid an egg, wouldn't that freak you out? So he deliver eggs so no one knows what he did,,,,,,,parents hide them because that would be just to hard to explain to the kids where they come from,

Answer 8

The proper question is:Why do people think the easter bunny is real?

Answer 9

It doesn't,bunnys don't lay eggs.your parents do the eggs and then they tell you a lie.That a rabbit layed them.

Answer 10

Because spring celebrates "new life" like when eggs hatch.