Now tell me what a rabbit and eggs have to do with Easter, it must have crossed your mind sometime too right. I mean the logical thing would have been to have a chicken and egg, or I’m going to be liberal here and say any bird with eggs. I would even accept a rabbit delivering carrots on Easter instead of eggs, or maybe that’s too cliché. Either way, rabbit and eggs have become a global representation of Easter. In Guyana, besides the religious significance, Easter means Kites, open spaces and hats (yes because of the sun and because of another reason). Easter is a favourite time because we get to have family picnics and everyone goes out and fly their kites, and when I say everyone I mean everybody (all Guyanese, regardless of religion). During this season one find a nice breezy spot under a shaded tree, or a nice branch in the tree and can sit there for hours just watching the kites soar in the skies. Heck you even make up little games between the kites (hopefully soon we can get a glimpse of what Easter 2013 looked like in Guyana). In the city they also have these garden hat parties/competition, where hats are painstakingly decorated with flowers and what’s not and of course who else but the ‘Easter rabbit and eggs’ (though this means nothing to us), then they are paraded for those assembled to see and ohh and aww over.
Well, one mystery was solved last night when I was reading my favourite Finnish magazine (SixDegrees Finland’s English Language Magazine). Yes it’s my favourite because I can read it with ease from cover to cover (who am I kidding, it’s the only ‘Finnish” magazine that I read, outside of the university magazine English section). It has interesting articles too, and lo and behold Mr. Rabbit made the cut in its latest publication. So here goes…
A Cute Little Bunny With Some Eggs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A mythical birth of Easter traditions.
EASTER, the deeply significant Christian festival, has become steeped in many traditions and rituals. I’m sure we are all aware of the religious connotations of many of these customs but I don’t remember a bunny in the Bible or children painting eggs with all the colours of the rainbow. So what is all this about?
Saxon goddess Ostara, goddess of spring and dawn, brought the end of winter in with her each year and made the days grow brighter and longer. With the rabbit as her sacred animal and her passion for new life it’s no wonder that she created pagan traditions with her story. Feeling guilty for her late arrival one year, and as an apology to a bird whose wings had been frozen by the harsh winter, she turned it into a snow hare and made him her pet. Uniquely, as a homage to his previous state as a bird, Ostara also kindly granted the hare the gift of being able to lay colourful eggs once every year.
Eventually however, he managed to anger the goddess, forcing her to cast him into the skies forever as the constellation Lepus, being guarded at the foot of Orion. The hare’s only saving grace was that he was permitted to return to earth once each year, but only to give away his technicolour eggs to the children celebrating the Ostara spring festivals.
So the poor thing may have, understandably, been feeling hard done by at the time but he managed to become a variant of the legendary character that we all know and love as the Easter Bunny and brought the iconic convention of making, receiving and eating those deliciously decorated eggs.
(Taken from SixDegrees Finland’s English Language Magazine: Beth Morton: ItsLassieTime)
Easter postcard circa early 20th century (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Now it makes sense right? I know, I too was thinking hmmm…interesting after reading this article. Thank you Ostara for solving one of life mysteries for me, now I know why rabbits/hares and eggs go together at Easter. I have a feeling she is also feeling pretty guilty this years because in Finland we still have snow fall in April, when spring was to begin, hmm I don’t know, somewhere around ….21 March. But the days are longer and brighter so I have to give her props for that, she is doing something
Until next time, one of life’s mysteries solved (at least for me).
alexi larose 