The Conversation
Easter is primarily a Christian holiday with the story of Jesus rising from the dead after passing three days before, and there are many traditions that come with this holiday, but where did these traditions come from?
The Story of Easter is found in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Story of Easter is about Jesus’s resurrection after he died on the cross. The day he died on the cross is known as Good Friday, and the third day after this, he rose on what we call Easter Sunday. But if this is what Easter is about, where did Easter Eggs and the Easter Bunny come from?
Dyeing eggs was actually a tradition taken from Christians to celebrate Jesus and his dying on the cross. Christians of Mesopotamia would dye eggs a red color to represent the blood shed by Jesus when nailed to the cross. Another time eggs were dyed was when different colors would be used to represent different topics for Easter. Examples of this is the red for blood, blue for love, and yellow for resurrection. These dyed eggs are probably where our current tradition of egg hunting came from!
Dyed Easter Eggs were used to help children learn about Easter. Eggs weren’t just dyed one color forever, later, scenes were painted on these eggs. Children would go and search for these eggs with painted scenes and tell what they meant. These eggs were also then hunted for by both women and children to resemble the joy the women felt when they found Jesus’ tomb empty.
Now that we know where the tradition of easter eggs came from, where did the easter bunny come from? Bunnies are a symbol of fertility and new life. But why else is the Easter Bunny, the “Easter” Bunny? There was a tale of a German goddess named Eostre, she is the goddess of Spring and of the fertility of humans and crops. Eggs and bunnies were used to resemble her because they also represent fertility and new life. There were feasts to celebrate Eostre, but this tradition was later replaced with the Christian Easter traditions when German immigrants came to the United States.
Easter is full of so much history, from the Bible, from our past, and even tales from Germany!
sources: https://www.history.com/articles/easter-symbols
https://www.chaseoaks.org/articles/easter-eggs-what-is-the-history-behind-this-tradition/