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Easter and the Easter Bunny
Next week is Easter, and I was thinking about what to do for Easter this year. Easter is a religious event, and since I'm atheist I guess you could say I worship the Easter Bunny. We always do the Easter egg hunts, ham and other Easter eats, but nothing that would be considered religious by any means.
I got to thinking about it this morning and wondered where that Easter Bunny idea came from. I guess if I was not so lazy I could do a search and find out, but was hoping someone knew. Does the Easter Bunny actually have *anything* to do with the religious event? Or is the Easter Bunny simply a commercial apparition?
Not that I'll change what I usually do on Easter, I was just curious.
Comments
Questions answered
I had another coffee then sat down and found out for myself. My questions about Easter answered to my satifaction at
http://www.marvelcreations.com/easter.html
Bunny = Fertility
Here is an interesting (and brief!) explanation of some of the symbols associated with Easter. Easter celebrations as we know them have evolved from both Christian and Pagan traditions. In a nutshell (eggshell??? sorry, couldn't resist!) Easter is about rebirth and new life - of spring and/or of Jesus, depending on your belief system.
Cheers
Rose
Easter and the garden variety Pagan
We do Ostara (spring equinox) and Easter at our house; the one time I tried to skip Easter and the bunny I had a very unhappy child here, even though we did it at Ostara. So now we do our religious stuff at Ostara and the cultural stuff at Easter--kinda like Yule and Christmas.
Edited to add a question: Hey Christians here--Do any of you guys skip the more Pagan-y things that have attached themselves to Easter, like the bunny, eggs, etc? Just curious. I know more than a couple of Christians who skip the more Pagan-y aspects of Christmas.
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
Easter Bunny
I never knew where the Easter Bunny came hopping in from either. Since my kids have been born (and my mom used to do this for the older grandkids when they were small) we have a huge egg hunt and gathering at my Dad's home every year. I never got into the Easter Bunny leaving goodies in the basket thing with my kids.
I found this interesting because just this morning the newspaper DH brought home had a write up in it about Easter and likening it to Christmas these days. . . stores trying to commercialize it to make big sales, etc.
The church I was raised in doesn't believe in Christmas, but rather than make us "different" from all the others in school, Mother always explained to us about the beliefs, but let us participate in gift giving, etc. along with the other kids. So for us it was about Santa Claus, minus the religious aspect most people attach to it.
I'd think the Easter Bunny thing could be done the same way for folks that do not believe in Easter in a religious way. Explain to the kid so they'll know when others start questioning them or talking about things they don't understand, then do it your way.
Easter traditions
We are Christians, but we also practice the "pagan-y" things. With all the commercialization on Easter and the Easter bunny it's hard not to have my children participate in it. I just make a point to talk to them about what the "real" meaning of it is (to us)then I'll read the story out of the bible and discuss it with them. I just don't think I would have the heart to let them miss out on hunting for eggs or I wouldn't want to miss out on watching their little faces light up as they open a plastic egg full of treats!! My favorite part is at the end of the day my kids are taking turns hiding eggs for each other in the house! They are so cute!
BTW, for Christmas we also bake a cake for Jesus and sing him Happy Birthday!
xoxoxoxoox
Amee
Christian Easter
We are Christians and, as adults, value the religious aspects of Easter highly. We have traditionally done the more "Pagan-y" things on the Saturday before Easter and try to spend Easter Sunday in more religious pursuits. I feel like when kids seem to be missing out on the fun of something that is innocent like having Easter eggs because of some "higher meaning," they are likely to end up resenting the religion that denies them the fun. I grew up with the Easter egg hunt on Saturday and the religion on Sunday, and it worked great because as I grew too old for the Easter Bunny, I naturally dropped the Saturday activities and gradually came to appreciate what is, for me, the true meaning of Easter.
Lauralyn
We do too
We celebrate the more pagan-y things too. I would love to stop celbrating those, but my kids would be very upset, so we just make sure that they understand what the Easter celebration is really about. We read the story of Jesus' resurection on Sunday, we sing religious songs. We even put crosses and things like that on our Easter eggs. When they get older we'll start spending a good deal of our holidays in shelters, helping out homeless people, or maybe abused wives or something, because I feel that that will put hte holiday into perspective for them. Easter is (for us) a celebration of Jesus' resurection. Jesus' life was devoted to helping the needy (the poor, the ill, the crippled). The same with Christmas, the celbration of his birth. The fact is that Christmas and EAster are some of my least favorite holidays becuase they're all about ME. What am I going to get, how much and I going to get, . . . etc. They should be about giving, like Jesus gave to us.
Blending family Easters
We've done Easter bunny, just like we do Santa Claus. This year we were a little unsure what to do because my DH's sister and her family is coming, and they are conservative Evangelical (while we are liberal Catholic -- their parents are moderate Catholic, so that's the background). They don't do Easter bunny.
We are planning an egg hunt, and I have Easter baskets for each child, which I will not try to pass off as "from the Easter bunny" (especially since two of the older kids are 11 and 13). I consider exuberant celebration highly appropriate for Christian holidays, myself.
We have a great old book called "The Bunny Who Found Easter" and though it does not talk about being nailed to a cross or rising from a tomb, IMHO it does a great job of using bunnies and springtime to get across the idea of new life and a spiritual longing in a way that is totally appropriate for a preschooler.
For that matter, tangible, natural things like eggs, bunnies, grass, duckies, and flowers get that idea across to *me.* If it's sensual, if it's ritual, I love it: foot-washing, kissing the cross, eating the body and blood, being immersed, fish on Fridays, ashes on the forehead, incense, candles, anointing oil -- God is present and in *this* world and in the stuff of this world. Or that's how I think of it, anyway.
As far as the Pagan-Christian connection -- if I had spiritual practices that were meaningful to me and then converted to Christianity, I would think my attitude would be, "if it ain't broke . . ." (Then again, plenty of Christians think Catholics are pretty much pagan, so what do I know?)
One other book: I also love The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, which is a must-have for parents of girls!
Me too
I have tried several times to skip Easter and just do Ostara traditions too but I have never gotten away with it. I have just kind of resigned myself to having TWO Easters and not complaining much because the Easter bunny and the eggs part of easter is so pagan and ...well, it's all the same as our Ostara rituals,really.
I had a daycare parent who was Christian who did not know the roots of Easter traditions(like it's name comes from the Germanic Goddess Eostre who was a fertility goddess whose symbols were bunnies and eggs) until I told her and she was appalled and refused to celebrate with the Easter Bunny and the eggs after that. i felt really bad
the kids were just so upset and didn't understand why.
here too!!
Mindy- When my kids and I tried to volunteer here last Christmas nobody wanted help! They said to help on or around Christmas and Easter you have to sign up 3 months in advance. So even though I called 5 weeks ahead it was too late. So now we DONT do it then we do it all year around, they need help more than when everyone forgets to help.
xoxoxoxox
Amee
too young
I'm waiting till they're younger to do start volunteering regularily. Right now they are too young and trusting. All someone would have to do is offer them candy, and off they'd go. They all think that everyone is their friend, and the world is a safe place. I feel taht Angel is old enough, so pretty soon me and her will start helping out in a soup kitchen somewhere.
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