v35.3: Happy Easter

Good morning folks,

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First off, let me start by saying Happy Easter to everyone out there in .com land.  Easter is officially over, but since I didn't have much of an opportunity to say it this weekend, I'm saying it now.  I had family over all weekend long and there were some good times had by all.  In addition, I celebrated my 20th Birthday (again).

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Easter is one of those holidays (like Christmas) where a lot of people tend to take part and it means something different depending on your situation.  Easter was primarily a Christian holiday as that is when they remember the death and resurrection of Jesus.  For others, it is a holiday where a happy little bunny comes to your house (at night of all times) and hides eggs all over and leaves behind chocolate.  I remember believing in both sides as a child.  One has to eventually ask themselves, what the heck does a rabbit have to do with eggs?

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Well in a few short sentences I will explain the origins of Easter, the bunny and the eggs for you.  Initially, Easter was a German holiday called Osterhase and was considered one of "Childhood's greatest pleasures".  In fact, the very first edible Easter Egg was created in Germany sometime in the 1800s and was made primarily of pastry and sugar.

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The bunny seems to have become the primary symbol of Easter even though initially it was the egg.  Easter is a Spring time holiday.  It symbolizes fertility and flowers and the exodus of Winter meaning nice days are ahead.  I'm sure most of you have seen the Children's movie "Bambi" before.  The spring time was depicted in that movie as a happy time where boy and girl animals fell in love, flowers bloomed and the scene was very colorful.  Since rabbits typically give birth to very large litters, it was chosen to represent this fertile spring-time holiday.  It is one of those things that doesn't make a lot of sense, but somehow it was adopted and now we recognize the rabbit as a symbol of Easter which is a symbol of spring.

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So what does a rabbit have to do with eggs?  Absolutely nothing!  The origins of the egg are a bit sketchy and I'm not entirely certain about the accuracy of the information but here goes anyway.  Back in the early 1600s children would build brightly colored "nests", often out of caps and bonnets, in secluded areas of their homes.  The "O_ster Haws_e" would, if the children had been good, lay brightly colored eggs in the nest. As the tradition spread, the nest has become the manufactured, modern Easter basket, and the placing of the nest in a secluded area has become the tradition of hiding baskets (source). It is also said that eggs were colored by boiling them with flowers causing the color from the petals to soak into the egg shell creating lightly colored eggs which would be given to children during this holiday.  No where is there mention of a bunny, in fact, the bunny wasn't introduced until sometime in the 1700s.

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There are some other interesting facts on that site if you're interested and it goes into a bit more depth on the holiday and its origins.  Unfortunately, I need to get back to work and get caught up on 3 days worth of emails.  I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great day today.

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Cheers,

Al