AUTHOR R. ANN SIRACUSA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It isn't the destination that matters -- It's the journey that counts!
Contact me!
  • HOME
  • BLOG
  • BOOKS
    • All For A Dead Man's Leg
    • All For A Fist Full Of Ashes
    • Destruction Of The Great Wall
    • All For Spilled Blood
    • First Date
    • Halloween In The Catacombs
    • All In The Game
    • Family Secrets: A Vengeance of Tears
  • ABOUT ME
    • Resume
  • PHOTO ALBUMS
  • RESOURCES
  • MY ORGANIZATONS
  • BLOGS ABOUT ANN
  • Blog

WILL THE REAL“OSTERHASE” PLEASE STAND UP? Origins of the Easter Bunny

4/10/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
​
​We Americans have done it again.

“Done what again?” you ask.

Many of our traditions were brought to what is now the United States by the immigrants who braved the unknown and came here hoping for a better life… our ancestors. Easter traditions are no different. And in absorbing those traditions into American culture, often we didn’t get it quite right… or else we were consciously attempting to be different, but I don’t believe that applies to religious traditions brought from Europe to North America.

So what happened?

RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION
Easter is the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but nowhere in scripture, in any version of the Bible, do we find a reference to a long-eared, short-tailed creature who delivers decorated eggs to well-behaved children.
​
However, the association between Christianity and the Leporidae family [which includes the species of rabbit and hare] is not totally off the wall. First, because these animals are prolific procreators, hare and rabbits are ancient symbols of fertility and new life, and often associated with springtime.
In ancient times, the Greeks believed the hare was a hermaphrodite and able to reproduce without a male. The idea that hares could reproduce without loss of virginity led to an association with the Virgin Mary. The result was the hare appearing in paintings of the Virgin and Christ child.

The Madonna of the Rabbit by Tizian
 
▼Photo Source:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_of_the_Rabbit

Picture
“The rabbit is a symbol of fertility and, due to its whiteness, of Mary’s purity and the mystery of the Incarnation, and is also a symbol of her Virginity.”

We now know female rabbits and hares can conceive a second litter of offspring while still pregnant with the first, resulting in them being able to give birth seemingly without having been impregnated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madonna_of_the_Rabbit

Some believe it may have been related to the Holy Trinity because of the three hare motif found in works of art throughout the world as early
                                                                         
as the 6th century.              Photo source: feelguide.com/meaning-of-the-three-hares ▼

Picture
PAGAN ASSOCIATION
While Easter is a Christian holiday with its roots firmly embedded in religion, the symbols of this Holy Day, as with many holidays and celebrations, evolved from ancient pagan legends and rituals. Even the English word for Easter is derived from the Anglo Saxon name for Eostre or Eastre, the German goddess of Spring and the Dawn. Logically, her celebration was the spring solstice and her symbol – surprise, surprise – the hare.

 ▼Photo source: mysticalshores.com/goddess-Eostre

Picture
  Legend has it that Eastre found an injured bird. In order to save its life, the goddess transformed it into a rabbit. The transformation was successful in that the rabbit survived, but it was not quite complete, as this rabbit could only lay eggs as if it were still a bird. In gratitude, the rabbit would decorate the eggs and leave them for the goddess.”  https://mysticalshores.com/2015/04/01/the-goddess-ostara-eostre/
​

However, according to www.catholic.org/lent/ there is no evidence of any pagan correlation.
​
Eventually, this legend morphed into a German tradition for the celebration of Christian Easter. Thus, the egg-laying hare called “Osterhass” [also “Oschter Haws”] traveled to North America in the 1700s with the German Lutheran immigrants who settled in Pennsylvannia, where Osterhass continued to play the role of evaluating whether children had been good or bad before the start of the season of Eastertide. The tradition spread to other parts of the country and is now international.                
Chinese Easter Card ▼

Picture
HOW DID WE GET IT WRONG?
The way in which the tradition evolved into The Easter Bunny has nothing to do with religion or paganism. It has to do with Zoology and accuracy.

All of the ancient references and German customs refer to a hare, not a rabbit. The mistake is, apparently, a general assumption that rabbits and hares are the same animal. We seem to use the words interchangeably.


Rabbits and hares are not at all the same. They are both part of the same order of mammals, the same family – Leporidae – but they are a different species, just like sheep and goats are species of the family Bovidae [mammals with hoofs]. Chances are, if you referred to a sheep as being a goat, someone would correct you.

Picture
The differences are not just in the way they look. Baby rabbits, called kittens or bunnies, are blind and have no hair at birth. Baby hares, called leverets, are born with fur and sight and can move within an hour of birth.

They live in different types of habitat, eat different kinds of food, have different mating habits and gestation periods. They are also different in how fast they can run and in many other ways which I won’t bother you with. Both are native to North and South America, Europe and Asia.


HOW DID THE MEDIEVAL EASTER “OSTERHASS” [HARE] BECOME A RABBIT?
It doesn’t matter. In reality, neither one can lay eggs, and the Easter Hare still delivers eggs in the Czech Republic.

   ▼ Photo source: http://philatelier.over-blog.com/2019/03/lapin-ou-lievre-de-paques.html

Picture
  • HAPPY EASTER!


Sources:
https://mysticalshores.com/2015/04/01/the-goddess-ostara-eostre/
http://herald-zeitung.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/article_a92ef55e-67bc-11e0-99ac-001cc4c03286.html
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/easter-symbols
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Bunny
https://time.com/3767518/easter-bunny-origins-history/
https://www.catholic.org/lent/story.php?id=67999
https://www.catholic.org/news/hf/faith/story.php?id=67961
https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-is-the-difference-between-a-rabbit-and-a-hare
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141219-rabbits-hares-animals-science-mating-courtship/
https://www.feelguide.com/2020/01/06/new-book-explores-the-meaning-of-the-three-hares-one-of-human-historys-most-mysterious-symbols/
https://science.jrank.org/pages/3785/Lagomorphs-Rabbits-hares-North-America.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madonna_of_the_Rabbit










1 Comment
neme amber
4/14/2020 12:54:50 pm

Hello, everyone! I,m here to explore blogs and forum about the wonderful and most safe cure for (Herpes Virus).I was positive to the deadly virus called herpes and i lost hope because i was out casted and rejected even by my closet friends.i searched on-line to know and enquirer about cure for Herpes and i read someone testimony on how he was cured from Herpes so i decided to contact the same herbalist because i know that nature has the power to heal everything.i contacted him to know how he can help me and he told me never to worry that he will heal me with the natural herbs from God!after 2 days of contacting him, he told me that the cure has been ready and he sent it to me via DHL and it got to me after 3 days!i used the med as he instructed me (MORNING and EVENING) and i was cured!its really like a dream but i am so happy!thats the reason i decided to also add more comment of Him so that more can be saved just like me!and if you need his help, you can email him on nativehealthclinic@gmail.com, or whatsapp +2348140073965 I,m neme amber and you can get in touch with me via nemeamber@gmail.com..Contact him for help at Herpes virus HIV/AIDS CANCER COPD BRAIN TUMOR All kind of virus and disease //...

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author R. Ann Siracusa

    Novelist, retired architect and urban planner, world traveler, quilter, owl collector, devoted wife-mother-grandmother, great-grandmother, and, according to some, wild-assed liberal.

    Archives

    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    November 2015
    February 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Baboons
    Bagpipes
    Halloween
    Mopane-Mopani Worms
    Saint Patrick
    Samhain
    Shamrock
    Snakes
    Travel
    Veterans Day

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.