The Easter Bunny actually has nothing to do with the biblical Easter. MSNBC had a good article at the related link. The Easter Bunny, as it is called now, dates back to 13th Century Germany, where in pre-christian times they worshiped several gods and goddesses, including the goddess Eostra, who was the goddess of fertility.
Since rabbits are very fertile, and eggs represent fertility, that's how the bunnies and eggs came into play.
As with the origin of the Christmas Tree at Christmas time, the Easter Bunny was a left-over from a pagan religion that was adopted into Christianity, in order for Christianity to be more palatable to the converts (so they didn't have to give up all of their rituals).
For more information, see Related links below this box.
Actually, they have nothing to do with the spiritual aspect of Easter for those who celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
Originally, rabbits and hares were associated with Eastre, a celebration for the goddess Eastre.
What has become today's Easter Bunny is actually a surviving remnant of much older traditions celebrated in pre-Christian days, and still practised today by Pagans around the world. Bunnies, or rabbits, are fertility symbols, sacred to the Goddess of the Dawn, once known as Ostarra or Eostara, which is from where Easter takes its name. Due to the rabbits' ability to procreate at light speed, the rabbit is a perfect symbol for fertility, which is a focus of natural life cycles in the spring. Eggs, too, are a natural symbol for fertility - from the egg comes life.
During Spring Equinox celebrations both past and present, the focus is on Spring growth. All the blossoms on the trees, new shoots of flowers popping up above the ground, and new born animals, including the ever producing rabbit, are all signs for us to see that the season of Spring has begun and nature continues its cycle as ever before.
When Christianity began to spread, one way of getting Pagans to accept the newest religion was to overlap Christian values and ideas with current and much loved pagan customs, to attract the locals to the church and pull them away from their long practised ways of honoring and living with nature. The Easter Bunny and Egg hunts are two such carryovers that, in the beginning, had nothing to do with the Christian faith or belief in Jesus' resurrection. But these pagan ideas helped those wandering priests to get the attention of the pagans they sought to convert. Pagans around Europe loved their goddesses and symbols of life that they understood much more clearly than The Bible, which was not readily available to the common people anyway. Incorporating these pagan practices was discovered to be a key ingredient to bring more people under the church, and it made Christianity itself more acceptable. After all, the most successful missionaries are those who seek to understand the people they wish to convert by living their life without compromising anyone's beliefs. Because the Christian church celebrates the Resurrection of Christ in the spring, it made sense to them to "borrow" from Pagan Spring rites in order to make the attraction to the newer religion plausible.
The short answer is: Rabbits (and eggs) have come to be seen as symbols of new life and rebirth, and the Christian celebration of Easter is all about new life, because of Christ's resurrection, and the new life He bought for us.
They have virtually nothing to do with the resurrection as it as celebrated religiously. The secular practices at Easter time, including the word Easter itself, have more to do with the pagan celebrations at springtime, usually on or near the vernal equinox. The word Easter is derived from the name of thegoddess Ishtar, and the rabbits and eggs are essentially symbols of fertility, something sacred to the cults of Ishtar. There is the obvious life forceconnection between fertility and the resurrection from the dead. The Roman church has made use of other connections with pagan practice in order to highlight the breadth and appeal of Roman Catholic practice.
well it is a holiday which Jesus christ was ressurected but they now call it Easter and some how they have jokes about a the Easter bunny now how lame im just 11 and know that
bunnies have to do with Easter because of new life, like Jesus. this is because bunnies reproduce so frequently, and in large numbers.
In the Bible, bunnies have nothing to do with any Holy Day. However, in the man-made tradion of Easter, bunnies play an integral role - fertility and spring.
its the bunny of easter
Signs of Easter ,Jesus is main reason
we eat Easter eggs at Easter to celebrate new life.
it will be Easter in accf when it is Easter in the real world
easter thursday is simply the thursday after easter.:] easter is a good year tho:) come to this app and learn more answers u .
easter
the easter bunney lives on easter islined
Easter is its own season
the plural of Easter is Easters. As in "I have seen many Easters".
Some good Easter decorationsinclude Easter eggs and Easter bunnies. They are very popular.
The Easter Bunny is a Bunny (:
the Easter bunny lives on Easter island
Easter Sunday begins the Easter season which ends with Trinity Sunday.
The Anglo Saxon goddess after which Easter is named was Eostre.