{"id":1812,"date":"2018-03-29T14:29:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T13:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/religion-law-and-the-constitution\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2025-11-26T11:33:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T11:33:56","slug":"who-owns-the-easter-bunny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/religion-law-and-the-constitution\/2018\/03\/29\/who-owns-the-easter-bunny\/","title":{"rendered":"Who owns the Easter Bunny?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"hares\"<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be Easter if there wasn\u2019t a bun-fight (or possibly a hot-cross bun-fight) going on in relation to a mysterious chocolate delivering bunny.\u00a0 There is a popular belief that hares were associated with the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre\/Ostara, and that traditions associated with her gave rise to the Easter Bunny.\u00a0 However, this story has been challenged by authors like Adrian Bott, who suggest that it originated with some wild speculation from the German folklorist and fairy-tale collector Jacob Grimm.\u00a0 Bott even goes as far as to cast doubt on the existence of Eostre herself, pointing out that the only textual evidence for worship of this figure comes from the Venerable Bede in his \u2018Reckoning of Time\u2019.\u00a0 Bede himself attests that by his own lifetime in the eighth century, festivals in honour of Eostre had died out in favour of the Christian celebration of Easter.\u00a0 Furthermore, linguistic clues suggest that the word \u2018Eostre\u2019 could relate to East or opening, giving plausible alternative origins for the name of the Anglo-Saxon month.<\/p>\n

Moreover, rabbits and hares did have genuine associations with purity in Medieval Christian tradition, and ironically their fecundity led to a belief that they could reproduce without sex, leading them to be linked with the Blessed Virgin. \u00a0The grace, gentleness and vulnerability of hares may also have encouraged them to be associated with what were deemed positive feminine attributes.\u00a0 For instance, the virgin St Melangell protected a fleeing hare from a hunting prince and his baying hounds, and most early accounts implicitly invite the reader to draw parallels between the girl and the helpless creature. All things considered, the symbolism of the hare in a Christian context is not a weird anomaly which requires an explanation.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, we shouldn\u2019t be too quick to simply shrug off the Easter bunny and associated Pagan goddess as nineteenth century romanticisation of the past.\u00a0 Bede was close enough to the events he described to render his ascribing a festival to a non-existent goddess rather unlikely. Furthermore, there is now some additional academic support for the figure of Eostre, which is drawn from studies of English place names.\u00a0 The truth is that very little has come down to us about female deities in the Germanic pantheon in general, we have been left with only a few tantalising scraps about Frigga and Freya, and there is less about their more shadowy sisters.\u00a0 Against this backdrop, our lack of knowledge of Eostre is not at all surprising.<\/p>\n

It is also a fairly safe bet that Anglo-Saxon peoples had a spring festival of one sort or another, given that this is a near universal feature of human societies.\u00a0 And in England the spectacle of \u2018Mad March Hares\u2019 boxing in fields is an impressive one, and must have always been a welcome sign that the winter was losing its bitter grip on the world. \u00a0The turning of the seasons and the cyclical natural landscape would have been watched by different generations, and each would have found meaning derived from the religion and culture they knew.\u00a0 Eostre was probably a real goddess, and leaping hares were part of the new life exploding as her festival was celebrated.\u00a0 Arguably, perhaps, no more or no less than other creatures like fluffy chicks and ducklings, but then again, they appear on our modern Easter cards too.<\/p>\n

Bearing all this in mind, trying to achieve purity in symbolism is a futile exercise, and duking it out over whether the Easter Bunny is a Christian or a Pagan symbol is to miss the point, as beliefs evolve and change, whilst traditions have different meanings to different people.\u00a0 We are certainly not suggesting that Easter is nothing more than a festival of spring and new life, and those of us who identify ourselves as Christians believe in Easter as an acknowledgement of the Resurrection of Christ and the eternal liberation of Creation.\u00a0 Our festivities, and the ideas which underlie them, are indeed distinct \u00a0from those of our Jewish friends celebrating Passover\/Pesach (although we honour the Jewish roots of what we do) and neo-pagans keeping Ostara at around this time.<\/p>\n

However, when religions and cultures share physical and intellectual space, conscious and unconscious cross-pollination of practices and signs is inevitable, and people are undoubtedly drawing upon the same surroundings for inspiration.\u00a0 It is no coincidence that most religious traditions feature trees somewhere along the line, not to mention those celebrating evolution and biology, and it was precisely for this reason we adopted a Tree of Life as the logo for Balancing Beliefs. \u00a0Consequently, nobody gets to own the Easter Bunny, because far too many streams feed into pervasive cultural phenomena.\u00a0 This is why legal protection of religious beliefs needs to be individual in nature, as whether and in what context something is a religious symbol depends entirely on the person wearing, displaying or otherwise using it.\u00a0 Equally, it is impossible to designate any zones religiously neutral or free from sacred symbolism.\u00a0 Therefore, rather than seeking to claim icons, or define what our neighbours\u2019 symbols mean to them, perhaps we would do better just to listen respectfully and be grateful for what we have in common.<\/p>\n

Related Articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

UK Pagans respond to questions on the origins of Easter and Ostara<\/a> The Wild Hunt (14\/3\/17)<\/p>\n

The surprising origins of the Easter bunny: it\u2019s not what you think<\/a> Catholic Online (4\/4\/2017)<\/p>\n

Ostara and the Hare: Not ancient but not as modern as some sceptics think<\/a> Folklore Today 28\/4\/16<\/p>\n

The very strange history of the Easter bunny<\/a> The Conversation (24\/3\/16)<\/p>\n

The pagan goddess behind the holiday of Easter<\/a> The Times of Israel (5\/4\/15)<\/p>\n

5 Great Historical Myths and Traditions about hot-cross buns: a pre-Easter pastry<\/a> The Smithsonian (17\/4\/14)<\/p>\n

Mad March Hares are a sign that spring is here<\/a> The Guardian (25\/3\/13)<\/p>\n

A Bott The modern myth of the Easter bunny<\/a> The Guardian (23\/4\/11)<\/p>\n

Website of St Melangell\u2019s Church and the Saint Melangell Centre<\/a><\/p>\n

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Contact Us<\/h4>\n

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+44 (0) 161 306 6000<\/p>\n

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The University of Manchester
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