At least, that's what The Venerable Bede, an 8th-century Catholic historian, said. The problem is, his egg-and-bunny story was apparently a literary embellishment. No pre-Bedian references to magical rabbits and hidden eggs have ever been found.
The Venerable Bede: 8th-century crack-smoker.
However, witches around the world continue to celebrate Easter as "Ostara", and since she was goddess not only of the dawn but also of the east and springtime, that's quite fitting. And some hardboiled eggs can't really hurt, can they?
4 comments:
There's lots of "new age" pagans who try to link modern practices with some sort of ancient ritual. It may not be from an institutionalized ritual, but the fact that Bunnies and Eggs are both symbols of fertility do point to links with agrarian celebrations of the beginning of spring.
Or as Eddie Izzard put it once: "The kids eat chocolate bunnies because the color of the chocolate matches the color of the wood on the cross..."
No matter where it comes from, I think we can all agree that bunnies and eggs have nothing at all to do with the crucifixion and ressurection of Jesus...
Nope, nothing whatsoever. They're just spring-y and cute.
You can also divine with hard boiled eggs by rolling them down a hill. Really. I'm not kidding.
Agree with Laura. Bunnies and eggs are sooooo pagan and have nothing to do with anything biblical. Easter is just another example of Christians, way back when, appropriating a pagan celebration and finding ways of assimilating one culture's traditions with their own for purposes of conversion. Christmas is the same. As is Imbolc/Candlemas.
Heehee! The rest of the Bill Hicks joke is "Why not 'goldfish left Lincoln Logs in my sock drawer'?...at least that has some connotation of the miraculous!"
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