Happy Easter!

Peter Cottontail from his 1971 television movie, courtesy of
http://www.nydailynews.com

Happy Easter!

Christians worldwide celebrate Easter as Jesus of Nazareth’s resurrection from the dead.  It’s a time of rebirth and rejoicing; flowers are blooming, the air warms and the sun makes its presence known after a long winter.

Some fundamentalist Christians would probably be horrified to know the extent of Easter’s pagan origins and customs.  The very word (in English, that is) Easter derives from the old Germanic goddess of the dawn, Ēostre (also called Ostara and Ēastre).  European tribes celebrated her arrival around present day April, welcoming spring. 

The reason Christians celebrate the Christ’s resurrection around this time is because the New Testament states Jesus died just after celebrating the Jewish Passover feast (The Last Supper).  The actual date Easter is celebrated is calculated by the lunar calendar: each year Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.  Early Christians were notorious for incorporating pagan traditions into Christian ethic to smooth the path to conversion.

As for our other Easter traditions: the Easter bunny, Easter eggs and the like, they all have to do with pagan celebrations regarding spring and the moon.  Birds lay their eggs in the spring, so their abundance during this season makes their use in rites understandable.

The rabbit in the moon, courtesy of http://www.cst.cmich.edu

As for the bunny: hares and rabbits have deep associations with the moon in many cultures.  One can supposedly see a rabbit’s shape in the moon, so they therefore represent everything the moon represents…fertility (I mean, they are bunnies, after all! Plus the moon controls female menstruation), rebirth (waning and returning after a period of darkness), playfulness and sexuality (the reason the marketing genius that is Hugh Hefner chose the bunny as the symbol of Playboy Magazine).  And of course, all the things on that list can also stand for spring!

So this year when you put on your Easter bonnet and paint your eggs and cuddle your bunny, remember our holidays are not just mass-produced excuses to buy candy.  They are long-standing examples of our human history and how we understand and celebrate our world.