From Bunnies to Eggs, Ostara Celebrated to Honor Spring Equinox by Joy Richardson

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Many Christians may wonder what Easter rabbits and Easter eggs have to do with the resurrection of Jesus. Well, the answer is simple: nothing

Easter gets its name from the Teutonic goddess of spring, whose name is spelled Oestre or Eostre. Modern Pagans have generally accepted the spelling "Ostara" which honors this goddess on the Vernal Equinox.

The Vernal Equinox usually falls between March 19 and 22. Christians celebrate Easter on the first full moon on or after the Equinox, sometime between late-March and mid-April.

Since the Equinox and Easter are so close, many Christians who celebrate Easter often see this holiday as being synonymous with rebirth and rejuvenation. The symbolic resurrection of Christ that's celebrated by Christians is echoed in the awakening of plant and animal life.

But upon closer examination of several Easter customs, it becomes obvious that the origins of many of the traditions are Pagan. Eggs, Easter baskets, bunnies, and candy, have their origin in practices which have nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ – the focal point of the Christian celebration.
The Easter/Ostara Egg

One traditional symbol of Ostara begins with the egg itself. The shell is seen as the universe, which surrounds everyone and everything. The white is the Goddess, while the golden yolk represents the Sun God, and the egg as a whole is a symbol of rebirth.

The traditional coloring and giving of eggs at Easter has very Pagan associations. In England and Northern Europe, eggs were often employed in folk magic when women wanted to be blessed with children.
The Easter/Ostara Bunny

Clearly the association of rabbits with Easter has to do with fertility magic. These cute furry creatures reproduce rapidly, and often.
The Easter Bunny has its origin in the tradition of honoring of rabbits during spring as an animal sacred to the goddess Eostre. According to lore, she is the goddess of spring who presides over the birth of babies, both animal and human, and of the pollination, flowering and ripening of fruits in the plant kingdom.

The modern belief that eggs are delivered by a rabbit, comes from a popular Pagan legend about Eostre. According to the legend, Eostre was walking one fine spring day and came upon a beautiful little bird. The poor bird's wing was badly injured and Eostre, feeling great compassion for the little creature, wanted to heal it. But the little bird's wing was so badly damaged that Eostre knew it would never be able to fly again even after she healed it.

Eostre decided to help the bird by healing it in a way that would give it mobility and a little something more; she turned it into a rabbit. During the transformation, the rabbit retained the ability to lay eggs.

The rabbit was so grateful to Eostre for saving her life that she laid a sacred egg in Eostre's honor. The rabbit decorated the egg and then presented it to the Goddess. She was so pleased by the rabbit's gift that she wished all humankind to share in her joy.

In honoring her wishes, the rabbit went all over the world distributing beautifully decorated little gifts of life and continues to do so even today.

For modern Pagans, Ostara is a sabbat of light, of humor, of celebrating and growing. It's considered to be a time for balancing the light and dark, for starting new paths. These are concepts that all people, even those with different religious beliefs, can appreciate.

Sources:

Stone, Merlin, When God Was a Woman, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1976.

Walker, Barbara, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1983.
Copyright Joy Richardson. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.