This weekend, the Easter Bunny will be hopping from house to house bearing gifts for children to kickstart spring. Children adore this well-known bunny, and parents give credit to it for the gifts and treats they give their children each year, but where does the Easter Bunny actually hail from?
While Easter is celebrated in many different parts of the world, the Easter Bunny got its start in Germany. According to history.com, some sources state that the Easter Bunny followed German Lutheran immigrants to the United States in the 1700s when they settled in Pennsylvania. This is because they brought their tradition of an egg-laying hare named “Osterhase”, also known as “Oschter Haws” in Germany, with them.
RELATED: Hershey’s Chocolate World extending hours for Easter, Spring Break
These traditions were already being celebrated before Germans began immigrating to the United States though. Reported by The German Way, in 1682 Georg Franck von Franckenau, a German physician and botanist, published a lengthy essay named De Ovis Paschalibus Von Oster- Eyern (On Easter Eggs), under the name of Johannes Richier, one of his doctoral candidates. In the writing it is noted that the belief of an egg-bearing bunny was found in Protestant regions of Alsace and Palatinate and mentioned for the first time in this writing.
In the English translation, some of the essay reads “In Alsace, and [neighbouring] regions, these eggs are called rabbit eggs because of the myth told to fool simple people and children that the Easter Bunny is going around laying eggs and hiding them in the herb gardens. So the children look for them, even more enthusiastically, to the delight of smiling adults.”
Cover of ‘De Ovis Paschalibus Von Oster- Eyern (On Easter Eggs)’ by Georg Franck von Franckenau, 1682.
German Protestants began using the Easter Bunny as a judge of behaviour by rewarding well-behaved children with baskets filled with coloured eggs. This may remind you of a big man in a red suit running around in the snow. And the values are the same, the thought of not receiving a basket full of chocolate or a stocking full of toys forces children to alter their behaviour, essentially instilling good behaviour into them.
Another reason why bunnies are tied to Easter is the celebration of rebirth after winter and fertility since rabbits are very fertile animals.
So when you’re putting together Easter baskets for your children, or snacking on a chocolate bunny this weekend, you can think about how old the tradition of the Easter Bunny is and where it comes from.
