Happy Easter

[Silverbullet]

Happy Easter. Hope thsoe who could attended Sunfirse SErvices.

Have a nice Easter Dinner.

Hope the kids find lots of Eggs and chocolate bunnies

SB

[panyasan]

Have a very good and happy Easter!!

[Cogito]

Hope the kids find lots of Eggs and chocolate bunnies

After your comments about Greek gods on another thread, I'm curious to know whether you have ever heard the origin of the story of the easter bunny.

[Silverbullet]

Cogito, Easter was taken from many sources. Celtic beliefs. the Greeks, even (I think) the summarians.

What is your version of the Easter bunny?

SB

[enterprikayak]

easter and my 12 year wedding anniversary. yeehah! lol

[Silverbullet]

Ek, happy Anniversary. Also Happy Easter.

SB

[Cogito]

In England, Easter is celebrated quite enthusiastically both as a religious occasion and a celebration of spring that obviously has its background as a pagan event. It's also quite a big commercial event these days and in every shop you could hardly turn round without tripping over chocolates, baskets, bunny rabbits and so on. So I was quite surprised a few years ago to realise that despite being born and bred here, I had no idea why we associated spring with bunnies that lay eggs.

I suspect the true origin is that this is a celebration of fertility, eggs are a symbol of fertility, and rabbits and hares are among the most fertile animals we know of. Maybe all the other explanations are just rationalisations of that. But there were two stories that explain why bunnies and eggs are associated with each other so specifically. Or two versions of the same story.

In one version, the goddess Oestre found a bird dying of cold in winter, and transformed it into a hare so it would survive the cold. Hence we ended up with a hare that laid eggs. In the other, Oestre was trapped in animal form and was saved from freezing to death by a bird that wrapped its wings around her, but as a result the bird's wings froze and fell off. Hence there was a wingless bird that laid eggs among the undergrowth in spring.

I just wondered whether you knew either of these origins, or any other ones. It's not exactly a big topic of conversation, but when the topic comes up I occasionally ask what the explanation is, and nobody I've ever asked has known the origin. I grew up without ever being told why it was we celebrate easter like this, or just what we were celebrating. Perhaps because the explanation was pagan, and we're a God-fearing society (or claim to be), and pagan stuff isn't nice. But then it's a cultural tradition, and we're dead keen on traditions. So it's always struck me as a bit odd that we have this big tradition that nobody apparently really understands.

[Distracted]

My cousin tells her kids that Jesus loves little children and wants them to have fun so he gets his friends the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus to come and bring them presents a couple of times a year. They're buying it so far. Of course, her oldest is seven.

[Silverbullet]

Cogito, the Easter bunny doesn't lay the Eggs it just delivers them. Same as the Stork doesn't give birth to the babies it just delivers them. sheesh

SB

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

A very Swedish

GLAD PÅSK

everyone!

and happy anniversary, eK!

[panyasan]

We have lots of traditions during Easters as well. A lot of traditions steam from the Middle Age and of course from the original Christian story, but also with old folk traditions. For example we have Easter fire, special kind of Easter bread and lately - like 25 years now - we have bunnies and chocolate eggs. A custom we got from Great Britain and the States. Funny how all the traditions are mixed up.

[Cogito]

Cogito, the Easter bunny doesn't lay the Eggs it just delivers them. Same as the Stork doesn't give birth to the babies it just delivers them. sheesh

SB

Perhaps it varies in different cultures, but in the old stories the easter bunny (which used to be a hare) did lay the eggs.