The folk stories of the Easter Rabbit began in pre-Christian fertility lore. The Hare and the Rabbit, being the most fertile animals known served as symbols of new life in the Spring season.
The rabbit as an Easter symbol really got started in Germany, and is mentioned in German writings in the 1500s. The Germans also made the first edible Easter bunnies in the early 1800s. They were made of pastry and sugar.
German settlers arriving in the Pennsylvania during the 1700s brought the Easter Bunny to America. He was called the “Oschter Haws” and his arrival was considered a great treat next to a visit from Christ-Kindel on Christmas Eve. If the children had been good the “Oschter Haws” would lay a nest of colored eggs.
The children used to build their nest in a secluded place in the home, the barn or the garden. Boys used their caps and girls their bonnets to make the nests. Elaborate Easter baskets arrived much later as the tradition of the Easter bunny spread through out America and became commercialized.
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"Oschter Haws" laying a nest of coloured eggs in Germany is kind of cute, but the Easter Bells of France? That's fucked up.
In France, church bells ring joyfully during the year. But the bells stop ringing on the Thursday before Good Friday. They are silent for a few days while people remember the death of Jesus. On Easter Sunday morning, the bells ring out, telling people that Jesus is alive again. When people hear the bells, they kiss and hug one another.
Many children wake up on Easter Sunday and find eggs scattered about their rooms. They look in the nests they have placed in their yards or gardens and find Easter eggs in them. The eggs are said to have been bought from Rome where the bell ringing had gone to see the Pope and when the bells returned they bought with them the eggs.
In some parts of France, children look for four white horses pulling a chariot full of eggs.
In France the children throw eggs up in the air. The first one to drop it loses.
An old French custom was a contest of rolling raw eggs down a gentle slope–the surviving egg was the victory egg and symbolized the stone being rolled away from the tomb.
In France an egg game played is that in which the eggs were thrown up in the air and caught. The boy who dropped his egg had to pay a forfeit.
In France the children are told that it is the church bells that have been to Rome to fetch them their eggs.
killer says:
If you have a few spare minutes (and flash and some speakers), David Sedaris has quite a funny story about Easter in France.
[url=http://www.kilbot.net/mp3/easter.php]check it[/url].
Barney says:
I wonder at what point those wacky Germans decided to ignore the fact that a rabbit is a mammal and bears its youth live?
killer says:
Catherine said she can remember going into the forest with her parents and grandparents to collect sticks and moss, then they would build a nest in the backyard for Oschter Haws. When they awoke on Easter morning the nest would be full of chocolate eggs.
It's a nice story but you're right Barn, it is fucked up to build a nest for a rabbit. The Kilbot Family used to have the Easter Egg hunt in the backyard, but it was clear to us that the Easter Bunny had stolen the eggs from some chocolate-egg-laying chicken and dropped a few as he/she made a swift get away.
KL says:
Perhaps they started out as a different type of egg, if you know what I mean.
Barney says:
Ewww. Jesus, KL… That's decidedly more fucked up if you ask me…and I'm sure if you ask you too…
KL says:
I aim to please, Barnster. It's just sometimes I fail miserably. :P
fancy dave says:
If a chicken can be scienced-up to produce milk (as has been amply demonstrated by the FFGP) I see no reason why a chocolate egg-laying rabbit would be such a problem. Rather, the problem seems to be the quality of the chocolate. If only we could harness the power of chicken milk to improve the recipe.
Splicing the genes of a dairy chicken with those of an ovo-rabbit should (FINALLY) close the book on all this wacky Easter mythology.