We can’t wait for Easter to come and with only a few days left to wait, everybody seems to be full of enthusiasm, because Romanians welcome celebrations with loads of enthusiasm. If we have spent our time talking about the religious significance and local traditions assimilated with Easter, today we wonder: What is the story of the Easter Bunny?
In the dawns of Christianity, the Church reached an amiable compromise with the pagans, assimilating a series of celebrations and feasts along with their inherent traditions. As is the case with all important events in the Christian calendar, Easter today is a combination of religion, tradition and consumerism.
A very popular, international and commercial symbol of Easter is the Bunny. Let’s find out his story!
In the British Isles, there is a story talking about a pagan festival which used to be celebrated in spring, in honor of the goddess of fertility, Eostre. Her spouse was the Rabbit, a symbol of fertility himself. It would appear the Easter Bunny gained much popularity in protestant Europe in the 17th century only to “immigrate” to America along with the German colonists a century later.
Maybe you knew – or maybe not – that the Easter Bunny is not the only mascot of the Feast of the Lord’s Resurrection. In Switzerland, a cuckoo bird brings colored eggs to the children, while in Germany the little ones await for the Easter Fox. Other Easter mascots include the stork, the rooster and the chicken. In Romania, the Bunny and the Hen are the most popular Easter animals.
Another very popular symbol of Easter is painting eggs. Their history is more recent: in late 19th century Russia, Czar Alexander III commissioned Peter Faberge to produce the wonderful Faberge eggs (decorated and encrusted with gemstones) for his wife.
In America, Easter is a very… sweet holiday. 90 million chocolate Easter Bunnies are produced each year and 16 billion jellybeans.