Bunnies, eggs and … Jesus? Why? What exactly does Easter have to do with Christianity? Not as much as you may think.
The name Easter comes from a pagan figure called Eastre (or Eostre) who was celebrated as the goddess of spring by the Saxons of Northern Europe. A festival of the same name was held during the spring equinox to honor their god.
Eastre’s symbols were the hare and the egg. Both represent fertility and, consequently, rebirth. Rabbits, being much more common than hares, eventually were substituted.
Dyed eggs were already being used as part of pagan rituals. These were the first “Easter eggs.” As the traditions of the Easter Rabbit and Easter eggs evolved, they were lumped together, rather incongruously.
So there you have your bunnies and your eggs, both very plainly references to Eastre, the pagan god.
Now, the part that I’m confused about is what Jesus and his whole “One God” ideology is doing rubbing shoulders with pagan rituals.
The answer that I found can be called plagiarism or good public relations.
When second century Christian missionaries came to tell the Saxons about how Christianity was better (and certainly more correct) than their way of life, the missionaries were met with some resistance.
Although there is no way of really being sure when (and if) Christ rose from the grave, celebrating it around the same time as the spring equinox seemed fitting due to the ties to rebirth. Therefore, the missionaries decided to use the name Easter for this celebration in order to make Christianity easier for the pagans to accept. That’s sneaky.
So through the blurring of pagan and Christian symbols, we got bunnies, eggs and Jesus. Maybe Easter, the Frankenstein of holidays, stayed mostly religious for a while, but then American culture got a hold of it and bastardized it further.
As with every major American holiday, Easter has become about the worship of the almighty dollar. Chocolate Easter bunnies, chocolate eggs, yes, even chocolate Jesus. Fake grass, Easter baskets of every size and color, and God-forsaken Peeps are everywhere you look.
Modern Easter is more about merchandizing, calories and cavities than about any type of spiritual worship. Some Christian churches have even started to refuse the namesake that Christianity worked so hard to steal, opting instead for “Resurrection Day.”
So this April 16, when you are worshipping Eastre, Jesus and money all at the same time, remember and enjoy your pagan – er … Christain – er … capitalist roots.

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