How do bunnys and eggs relate to easter?

Question

I've always wondered what the connection between easter, bunnys and eggs was....to me it seems like it makes no sense.

Answer 1

They're pagan symbols for fertility. It was originally a pagan celebration of spring.

Answer 2

There is no historical evidence that the bunny and eggs are anything to do with any pagan religions. No proven link. Also they were not adopted by the Christian churches. Easter eggs and the Easter bunny have never formed part of any church liturgy but have remained folk customs - things done by ordinary people for their own reasons, not because of the church. That said, the eggs most likely are based on Christian practice. Devout Christians, particularly Catholics and Orthodox, used (some still do) to fast during lent. At one time this meant not eating meat, dairy produce and eggs from Ash Wednesday till the day before Easter. Hence all the feasting on Shrove Tuesday (Pancake day, Mardi Gras, Carnival), the last day before Lent. Eggs were something you could give someone as a present at Easter to celebrate the end of the fast and the feasting to come. They can also represent new life etc. The "bunny" is an odd American idea based on a German folk custom - the Oschter Haws - the Easter Hare which was the original bringer of eggs. This is probably based on the observation that European Hares do not burrow - they make nests in the open fields which resemble some birds nests. Hence a joke/tease about hares laying eggs.

Answer 3

Bunnies and eggs are both symbols used in Oestara, the spring pagan festival from which Easter was developed. Bunnies (or more precisely, baby hares) are about spring quite directly: fertility and all that. Eggs are, too, of course. They were traditionally dyed red to represent the blood which is also part of life. Actually, chickens don't usually bleed laying an egg, but humans do bleed when they give birth, and also once a month when they do not get pregnant. So blood is a part of fertility, too.

Answer 4

Easter takes its name from the Teutonic spring goddess Eostra. Legend say that Eostra changed her pet bird into a rabbit to entertain children. The playful bunny (the bird transformed) hatched colored eggs that Eostra gave the children as gifts. Other cultures such as ancient Egyptians and Babylonians also featured brightly colored eggs in there religion to celebrate the return of spring and new life.
Now with that out of the way we can address how all of that became associated with the Christian holiday of Easter. As with many of the Christan traditions and holiday observances this was assimilated into there own religion and culture.

Answer 5

Eggs are a Jewish symbol of passover. Eggs are also widely taken as a symbol of new life, which makes it appropriate for Easter. The egg connection is quite old, although the bunny thing may be newer (I only know of newer bunny references).

The theory that eggs and bunnies come from pagan beliefs is unfounded. Among other things, we don't know of a specific pagan belief it could have come from.

Answer 6

All the Christain holidays started out as Pagan seasonal festivals. Easter just used to be a festival celebrating Spring. Christmas used to be a festival celebrating winter. The Popes were the ones to change it but the Pagans still celebrated their way

Answer 7

Like other xian holidays, easter began as a pagan celebration of spring -- fertility, rebirth, and all that good stuff. Hence eggs, a symbol of fertility.

Where the rabbits came from, I don't know. Then again, I grew up in the country and nobody ever knew where the parasite-ridden, rabies-spreading, garden-destroying little pests came from.

Answer 8

we never got taught about pagan fertility rites in church sunday school lol though I wish we had...we got told that rolling your eggs down a hill on easter sunday represented the stone rolling away from the cave entrance at Jesus resurrection. It wasn't till I left the church, got enlightened (atheist), did some reading and found out the truth

Answer 9

Let's clarify this whole "pagan symbol" thing about the egg. Here's what Wikipedia says about them:

"Although claims are often made that Easter Eggs were originally pagan symbols, there is no solid evidence for this; the one source[citation needed] for information on a possible pagan Goddess who may have given her name to the festival, Eostre, does not mention eggs at all, and as there is no other available information on Eostre, there is no apparent connection to eggs. It is not until the 18th Century that Jakob Grimm theorised a pagan connection to Easter Eggs, this time with a putative Goddess of his own who he named Ostara, a suggested German version of Eostre."

"At the Passover Seder, a hard-boiled egg dipped in salt water symbolizes both new life and the Passover sacrifice offered at the Temple in Jerusalem."

And here's what it says about why Christians use the egg: "In Christian times, the egg had bestowed upon it a religious interpretation, becoming a symbol of the rock tomb out of which Christ emerged to the new life of His resurrection. It can also represent the darkness inside the tomb inside a hollow egg."

So now we know.

Answer 10

Bunnies are not related to the Christian Easter. When Jesus was resurrected, farmers in the area reported their chickens laid different colored eggs. This is where the dyed eggs come in to play.

Answer 11

Fertility symbols. Spring is the time of rebirth. The seed is planted and rises again as a new plant. Bunnies (note the plural form) are notoriously fertile, and eggs are fertility itself.