Is it true that the tradition of the Easter bunny came from pagan roots?

Yes it is.





It all goes back to when Christianity first reached England.At that time England was inhabited by the Saxons.The first Christians to arrive wanted to convert the Saxons but in order to do so they needed to make Christianity both easy to convert to and appealing to this warrior race from the forests of Northern Europe.Not easy given that Christianity originated in the Middle Eastern deserts and had little relevance to their lives.





So they added Pagan elements to the Christian festivals so they seemed familiar in at least some ways.Eastre (sometimes called Eostre or Ostara)is the Saxon goddess of fertility and the moon.Her festival is at about the same time of year as Easter (at the Spring Equinox).Her sacred animal was the hare and the symbol of fertility was the egg.Her name was bastardised to give the Christian festival of Jesus's rebirth a name.The Pagan symbol of fertility,the egg,was included more or less unchanged except that it eventually ended up being made of chocolate rather than being a decorated real egg.





However the hare was too powerful a Pagan symbol to go unchanged.So it was turned into a rabbit and dressed in human clothes so it looked stupid and you got the Easter bunny.





Hares are sacred to many European Pagan religions and eggs are a pretty much universal symbol of fertility so the same thing was repeated again and again in other places.Is it true that the tradition of the Easter bunny came from pagan roots?
Yes. Ishtar (sp?), the goddess of fertility. Egg rolling, and references to bunny rabbits (because they are such prolific...reproducers)...Basically, the whole Easter ';holiday'; was incorporated by the Catholic church as they were trying to establish social power. Most Christian organized religions have continued that tradition, rather than celebrating the Christian passover.Is it true that the tradition of the Easter bunny came from pagan roots?
Absolutely!
Yes it is, it is a celebration of Spring...and fertility...nature is fecund!!!
Yes, bunnies represent fertility, as do eggs. Note the timing of Easter in Spring. Pagans used to make sacrifices to the gods to ensure fertile crops and livestock.
Yes.
Certainly , the pagans , many many thousands of years before Christianity celebrates Spring . They called it The Rebirth , because everything was coming back to life after a hard winter .


They celebrated it with signs of Spring - - baby bunnies , baby birds , Spring flowers , eggs ( suggesting birth ) , etc .


When Christianity took hold , it used all of the Pagan trappings and traditions , but inserted a rebirth of their own . They had Christ come back to life ( rebirth ) in order to slide the new religion into the old beliefs .
It's true, it's true!


Bunnies, baby chicks, and colored eggs sure don't have much to do with Jesus becoming a zombie.
Yup. Actually, its a day for some goddess named Esther. The roman catholics only adopted it to merge pagans and catholics at that time. Check out any google searches for Easter Sunday history.
I really think so. I'm not sure where the rabbit symbol really came from, but it sure seems like a fertility symbol to me.





http://altreligion.about.com/cs/alchemy/鈥?/a>





The name ';Easter'; came from the name of a pagan goddess Astarte according to some, and the Persians apparently used colored eggs as a ritual symbol to celebrate Naw Ruz (Persian New Year or the first day of Spring) since before the time of Christ.





http://www.nawruz.net/Article/article.ht鈥?/a>





It really looks like the orgins of Easter rituals came from different pre-Christian sources.
We all come from pagan roots, so it stands to reason some of our symbolism and traditions do as well.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostara





http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=鈥?/a>
Absolutely. It was common, and in many ways still is, for the Catholic church to allow pagan cultures to incorporate their pagan beliefs into Christian traditions/holidays.
blood_bought_saint has it entirely backwards! Christians have always incorporated their beliefs into the pagan ones in an effort to ';bring them into the fold'; like the sheep they would like everyone to be!


BB


)O(
Eostre (Easter) is just one of many days that the Christian religion took. The Christian religion has a bad habbit of changing holidays to non-Christian dates to incorporate those that believe the non-Christian holidays into there religion.





Did that make sense?
yes, Eostre/Ostara is a germanic pagan fertility goddess. Eggs, Rabbits, Spring, Chickens, etc are all representative of this pagan celebration. Even ';Lent'; is taken from the Germanic Pagan calendar, for ';Lenct Manod'; means ';Length month'; when the days are beginning to 'Lengthen.';





The word Easter is not found anywhere in the Bible.
Eoster is the pagan goddess for whom the holiday is named.
nothing celebrates the resurrection like a bunch of little kids running around doing an ancient fertility ritual blessed be!
yes but its just a decoration...no biggie


also someone did say that Mary Magdalene had a painted red egg
What is the problem about it.
It is not.


Granting for the sake of argument that it is, will I go to hell for it? I can see that you have the mindset of a fundamentalist.





The Easter Bunny


Born: c. 1500 A.D. (?)


Birthplace: Germany


Best Known As: The fictional symbol of Easter


The Easter Bunny is a jaunty symbol of the annual Christian holiday of Easter. (Easter marks the day that Jesus of Nazareth is supposed to have risen from the grave after his crucifixion.) According to tradition the Easter Bunny makes his visit every year, scattering brightly-colored eggs as he goes. The origins of the Easter Bunny aren't clear; the first recorded references to him (as ';Oschter Haws';) are generally agreed to have come from Germany in the 1500s. In ancient times the rabbit was a symbol of fertility, equated with springtime and renewal of life, and the hare was also associated with the moon, whose cycles determine the precise date of Easter each year. Over time these traditions presumably merged with the annual celebration of Easter itself, and now the Bunny is associated with Easter in much the same way that Santa Claus is the secular symbol of Christmas.





[Edit] Incidentally our calendar also has pagan roots.





[Edit] I said you have a fundamentalist mindset because they always ask this type of question. Sorry, if you are not.