The hollow chocolate Easter bunny is one of the more popular options. These bunnies were created hollow because if they were solid, they would be very hard to bite into.
Those making the bunnies can make them larger and more visually appealing if they make them hollow. Easter candy, in general, became a tradition to signify the end of Lent. Since many Christians give up sweets during Lent, they celebrate Easter with candy.
The Easter bunny is thought to have become popular in the 19th century. Since rabbits often give birth to large litters of babies in the spring, the bunny became popular as a symbol of new life. The trait of fertility in bunnies was associated with the pagan goddess of fertility named Eostre.
This led to the tradition of an egg-laying bunny in Germany, which was brought to the U. Most Easter candy is presented in a basket with fake, pastel-colored grass. The Osterhase, which was the egg-laying bunny or Easter bunny, would stop by the houses of children to lay colored eggs in nests put out by the children. Easter eggs go way back in pagan times, even before Jesus came to Earth. According to History. From a Christian standpoint, using the eggs also symbolizes new life when Jesus was resurrected from the tomb on Easter Sunday.
Why the need to decorate the eggs? It appears that the tradition goes back to the 13 th century when eating eggs was prohibited during Lent. So instead, people painted and decorated the eggs to symbolize the end of fasting and penance. When Easter came, they ate the eggs as a form of celebration. As a result of their fertility, rabbits have long been associated with spring and with new life.
Even the Greeks pointed out this connection. Stations of the Cross Quick Quiz. During the medieval period, rabbits began appearing in illuminated manuscripts and paintings where the Virgin Mary was depicted, serving as an allegorical illustration of her virginity.
The Easter Bunny was first popularized as a symbol of the season by the German Protestants. It is likely they were the ones to invent the myth of the Easter Bunny for their children. Even in earliest folklore, the Easter Bunny came as a judge, hiding decorated eggs for well-behaved children. The Easter Bunny followed German immigrants to the American colonies in the 18th century and the folklore spread across the United States.
The notion that the Easter Bunny is a pagan symbol developed in the 19th century. In , Jacob Grimm, the popular collector of fairy tales, suggested that the Easter Bunny came from primitive German pagan traditions. Once Grimm started the rumor, it began to spread, refined to suggest the Easter Bunny comes from the Saxon Goddess Eostre. However, there is no direct evidence of a pagan correlation. The first intimation of a connection arose from Jacob Grimm, and although he was a folklorist, he had no hard evidence other than his own speculation.
Conversely, there is considerable documentation that the rabbit was once associated with virginity, the Virgin Mary, and with the season itself, in a Christian context. As a result, we must conclude, the Easter Bunny is a distinctly Christian symbol, and does not have pagan origins as occasionally claimed by those who despise the popular children's myth. Copyright Catholic Online.
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