Happy Easter to you all!
I thought I'd talk about that very important subject: what do bunnies have to do with Easter?
Actually, bunnies have everything to do with Easter. Bunnies are very fertile little creatures, as we all know, and Easter began life as a Germanic fertility celebration.
The first mention of pagan Easter was in a book written in 703AD by the famous English mediaeval monk The Venerable Bede. Bede mentions that in Eostre's Month the people celebrated with feasts in honour of the Goddess Eostre.
Eostre was a Germanic goddess, (definitely not classical), possibly also known as Ostara. It's slightly odd that she doesn't get a mention anywhere else other than Bede, but it's not a huge problem. Early Germans weren't exactly literate, early Christians weren't exactly fond of pagans (and in any case were very busy expropriating their festivals), and the fact that Easter got taken over complete with original symbolism demonstrates the existence of the original festival.
It didn't take long for Eostre / Ostara to morph into Easter. Eggs are also a fertility symbol (obviously). Somewhere along the line the two got mixed together and the Easter Bunny ended up dealing out eggs.
And so here we are, painting eggs and eating chocolate bunnies. There are worse fates for a goddess.
I thought I'd talk about that very important subject: what do bunnies have to do with Easter?
Actually, bunnies have everything to do with Easter. Bunnies are very fertile little creatures, as we all know, and Easter began life as a Germanic fertility celebration.
The first mention of pagan Easter was in a book written in 703AD by the famous English mediaeval monk The Venerable Bede. Bede mentions that in Eostre's Month the people celebrated with feasts in honour of the Goddess Eostre.
Eostre was a Germanic goddess, (definitely not classical), possibly also known as Ostara. It's slightly odd that she doesn't get a mention anywhere else other than Bede, but it's not a huge problem. Early Germans weren't exactly literate, early Christians weren't exactly fond of pagans (and in any case were very busy expropriating their festivals), and the fact that Easter got taken over complete with original symbolism demonstrates the existence of the original festival.
It didn't take long for Eostre / Ostara to morph into Easter. Eggs are also a fertility symbol (obviously). Somewhere along the line the two got mixed together and the Easter Bunny ended up dealing out eggs.
And so here we are, painting eggs and eating chocolate bunnies. There are worse fates for a goddess.