The Origin of the Easter Bunny

[vkkv]

The Goddess Ostara and the origin of the Easter Bunny

Feeling guilty about arriving late one spring, the Goddess Ostara saved the life of a poor bird whose wings had been frozen by the snow. She made him her pet or, as some versions have it, her lover. Filled with compassion for him since he could no longer fly (in some versions, it was because she wished to amuse a group of young children), Ostara turned him into a snow hare and gave him the gift of being able to run with incredible speed so he could protect himself from hunters.

In remembrance of his earlier form as a bird, she also gave him the ability to lay eggs (in all the colors of the rainbow, no less), but only on one day out of each year.

Eventually the hare managed to anger the goddess Ostara, and she cast him into the skies where he would remain as the constellation Lepus (The Hare) forever positioned under the feet of the constellation Orion (the Hunter). He was allowed to return to earth once each year, but only to give away his eggs to the children attending the Ostara festivals that were held each spring. The tradition of the Easter Bunny had begun.


Take your choice of sources:

https://www.google.com/search?q=origin+of+easter+bunny+oestre&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

[Journeyman]

1. "So all my best is making old words new, spending again what is already spent."

~ Bill Shakespeare Sonnet 76

". . . and there is nothing new under the Sun."

~ Solomon(?), Ecclesiastes

[Igel]

2. "Making old words new ..."

Interesting. In lectures and readings about post-modernism in Russian lit, the idea of "otstranenie" (often translated as "alienation," meaning that the proper goal of art was making familiar things and words seem strange and foreign to one's routine existence) I don't think this particular quote was ever dragged in.

Everything else was.

And it's not like Ivanov and Akhmatova and Olesha didn't read Shakespeare.

[struggle4progress]

3. I'd guess there are no demonstrable ancient sources for this story

[vkkv]

4. Google: Oestre, goddess of spring

It is the original pagan holiday before it was hi-jacked by the Christians so to assimilate other cultures.

Religion is the oldest, most profitable marketing scam on the planet.

What they do is, sell a product: salvation, which costs absolutely nothing to make, and sell it to gullible people looking for answers that science can't entirely explain while the organization grows by assimilating many cultures and traditions.

[struggle4progress]

6. The modern myth of the Easter bunny

There is no definitive historical evidence that a goddess named Eostre and her hare companion was part of pagan folklore
Adrian Bott
Saturday 23 April 2011 10.00 EDT
... The colourful myths of Eostre and her hare companion, who in some versions is a bird transformed into an egg-laying rabbit, aren't historically pagan. They are modern fabrications, cludged together in an unresearched assumption of pagan precedence. Only one piece of documentary evidence for Eostre exists: a passing mention in Bede's The Reckoning of Time. Bede explains that the lunar month of Eosturmonath "was once called after a goddess... named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated." However, even this may only have been supposition on Bede's part ...
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/apr/23/easter-pagan-roots

Eostre - Spring Goddess or NeoPagan Fancy?
By Patti Wigington
Updated January 27, 2015.
... Eostre first makes her appearance in literature about thirteen hundred years ago in the Venerable Bede's Temporum Ratione. Bede tells us that April is known as Eostremonth, and is named for a goddess that the Anglo-Saxons honored in the spring. He says: "Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated 'Paschal month', and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honor feasts were celebrated in that month." After that, there's not a lot of information about her, until Jacob Grimm and his brother came along in the 1800s. Jacob said that he found evidence of her existence in the oral traditions of certain parts of Germany, but there's really no written proof. Interestingly, Eostre doesn't appear anywhere in Germanic mythology, and despite assertions that she might be a Norse deity, she doesn't show up in the poetic or prose Eddas either ...
http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/ostarathespringequinox/qt/Eostre.htm

[vkkv]

7. Interesting!

""" Jacob Grimm and his brother came along in the 1800s. (Grimm's Fairy-tales, got it) Jacob said that he found evidence of her existence in the oral traditions of certain parts of Germany, but there's really no written proof. Interestingly, Eostre doesn't appear anywhere in Germanic mythology, and despite assertions that she might be a Norse deity, she doesn't show up in the poetic or prose Eddas (insert: main source of Norse literature and poems) either """

Okay, so through all of your searches, you could not come up with an identifiable source of the origin of the story... but you are determined to say that something does not exist because there is no evidence? From what I understand, there are not a lot of early Norse or for example, Celtic writings, stories were told orally, only. (Yes, Eostre is definitely Germanic). Many pagan stories, cultural events are still mysteries to studied experts, right? I'm not attempting to defend the story, it's not that important, but your effort to dismantle the story has still left us with nothing actually substantial. So... thanks...I guess?

[struggle4progress]

8. I'd guess there are no demonstrable ancient sources for this story

[rug]

9. How many times have I asked you to stop doing this, s4p?

you are determined to say that something does not exist because there is no evidence

[struggle4progress]

10. I am afraid I never was too good about doing what I was told

Over the years, many people have given each other knowing glances and sighed, Bless his pointy little head

[vkkv]

11. S4P, I know it can be difficult for people who put themselves high above the rest of us to admit

that they do not know everything, not you, of course... but some people.

But back to the subject. Basically, you really don't know WHERE the Easter Bunny myth, fairy-tale, Victorian pop-culture trend or child's bedtime story originated.

You simply do not know -yet you reference some grand historical records that truly produce nothing.

Yes, you've led me to think about the origin of the story, true, but you've also shined a light on the idea that those who act smart and wise are probably not that at all.

Thank you for reminding me of this great quote:
The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
-- Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)

[struggle4progress]

12. I'd guess there are no demonstrable ancient sources for the story you posted

[vkkv]

13. I'd guess that you should have stuck with that the first time you posted it.

[frylock]

5. I'm sorry, but I subscribe to the Hare Club For Men theory.

The Hare Club For Men is an organization which was featured in the South Park episode "Fantastic Easter Special". The organization keeps and passes down the secret of Easter. In the episode, "Fantastic Easter Special", it is revealed that the secret of Easter is that the first Pope, St. Peter, was actually a rabbit. Leonardo Da Vinci had wanted to paint St. Peter as a rabbit in his painting, The Last Supper, but the Vatican opposed. So, Da Vinci painted St. Peter as a man, but left clues in his painting that he had in fact been a rabbit, just as Jesus had intended for the Pope to be. Since then, the Hare Club For Men has been painting Easter Eggs in order to keep the secret of Easter alive and protecting the decendants of Saint Peter.

http://southpark.wikia.com/wiki/Hare_Club_for_Men