How Did The Easter Bunny Become Part of a Religeous Holiday?

Borrowed from Ask Yahoo..... The Easter bunny has a long history as a pagan symbol that predates the Christian holiday. In fact, our sources suggest that early Christians purposefully co-opted the pagan hare to popularize their own holiday. Quite a few pagan cultures hold celebrations in the spring. It's the time of year when plants return to life after being dormant all winter and when animals mate and procreate. These festivities celebrate the renewal of life and promote the fertility of crops, animals, and even people, which was important in these agrarian communities. The Saxons believed in a maiden goddess of fertility named Eastre or Eostre (Oestre in Latin) and honored her with a spring festival. Hares and rabbits were considered sacred to Eastre because they are notoriously fertile animals. In the second century A.D., Christian missionaries tried to convert northern European tribes. To help make Christianity attractive, the missionaries turned pagan festivals into Christian holidays. The pagan Eastre festival occurred around the same time as the Christian celebration marking Christ's resurrection so the two celebrations blended into one, rabbit and all. Over time, Eastre became Easter, and the symbolism changed as well. Instead of the Easter rabbit symbolizing fertility, the rabbit may symbolize an innocent, vulnerable creature that can be sacrificed, similar to the lamb. To Christians, these innocents are tokens of Christ and the sacrifice he made. The Easter bunny we know today was influenced by German traditions dating back to the 1500s. German children believed that the Oschter Haws (a magical rabbit) would leave them a nest of colored eggs at Eastertime if they were good. Pennsylvania Dutch settlers brought this tradition to America in the 1700s. On a related note, eggs have long been a symbol of rebirth and thus associated with spring celebrations. In the 600s, Pope Gregory the Great forbade the eating of eggs during Lent (the 40 days proceeding Easter), and this helped make eggs a special treat at Easter. Many European cultures also have old customs of decorating eggs and giving them as gifts. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of my funniest Easter memories is from about 1989. Dave and Nena had joined us in coloring eggs with the kids the evening before Easter. After the kids went to bed the four of us spent an enjoyable few hours polishing off several bottles of wine. About 11pm we realized that we had forgotten to hide the eggs! You can imagine the scene. It was dark outside and we were, well, not exactly sober. The kids were about 8 and 9 years old so they were pretty good at finding Easter eggs. We couldn't just put them anywhere. We had to actually *hide* them. It got to be pretty funny . Four drunks stumbling around in the dark, trying to be quiet (it was late and we did have neighbors) and trying to find three dozen different little hiding places in the front and back yard. I think we had more fun laughing and hiding the eggs than the kids did hunting for them the next morning . Under normal circumstances, if they couldn't find all of the eggs, Wade and I could give the kids some hints to help them out. That particular Easter morning, though, we were as clueless as they were! We looked at each other and giggled when we saw how obviously some of the eggs had been *hidden* and then helplessly joined in the hunt when the final count totaled only about 33 eggs. I think in the end we still came up one egg short..... The moral of this story? Don't open the wine until after you have finished your Bunny duties! Happy Easter, everyone!