Of Easter, Eggs, Ovulation, Bunny Rabbits, and the Resurrection of Christ
  • [The following is a repost:]

    A reader writes:

    Dear Sir: Why do rabbits and eggs represent Easter, which also celebrates the resurrection of Christ?

    — Peter

    Dear Peter: Easter primarily represents the advent of springtime, just as Christ’s resurrection does also, symbolically.

    The Old-English word Eastre derives from an Anglo-Saxon Pagan goddess named Eostre, about whom very little is known. What we do know about her comes to us from the Benedictine monk Bede (672-735 A.D.) who’s also, incidentally, sometimes referred to as the Father of English History.

    In Bede’s On the Reckoning of Time, he mentions a goddess named Eostre (as in “estrogen”), and Bede tells us that the Anglo-Saxons had at one time worshiped this goddess during the spring equinox.

    Apart from Bede, no other reference to Eostre exists. Indeed, even in Bede’s time, Eostre had long since faded away. The fact, however, that Eostre was worshiped during the spring equinox does suggest something significant.

    Quoting the genius priest-poet Gerard Hopkins:

    What is spring?
    Growth in everything.

    Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
    Grass and greenworld all together;
    Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
    Throstle above her nested

    Cluster of bugle-blue eggs thin
    Forms and warms the life within;
    And bird and blossom swell
    In sod and sheath or shell.

    All things rising, all things sizing
    Mary sees, sympathizing
    With that world of good,
    Nature’s motherhood.

    (Gerard Manly Hopkins, “May Magnificat”)

     

    As you of all people would know, Peter, rabbits and hares are notorious breeders, and no doubt you’re familiar with the saying “to fuck like bunnies.” This sedate and venerable expression comes about because lagomorphs mature sexually at very young ages. They are also capable of what in biological terms is called superfetation, which means they can conceive a second time while still pregnant, and thus they are able to give birth to two litters. This actually happens many times throughout the year, although spring does definitely make these soft little cottontailed cuties, girl and boy alike, particularly crazy. The females are extraordinarily fertile, and that is eggsactly why they symbolize springtime.

    Rabbits and hares represent breeding and birth.

    Eggs also have obvious fertility-birth-and-blood connotations, and for this reason they’ve represented fertility and spring since the dawn of humankind.

    Do rabbits produce eggs? No, they do not. The good lady Eostre did, however, once putatively save a freezing bird at the end of winter, by turning this bird into a hare, which hare because it had once been a bird could then lay eggs, whereas I can only suck them, as you can see.

    Coloring Easter eggs and the source of this eggsellent tradition remains something of a mystery, though the Ancient Greeks did color eggs green (to symbolize new grass) and red (to symbolize blood).

    Birth. Blood. Death. Winter. Resurrection. Rebirth. Spring. Life.

    “There is nothing greater than life,” said Voltaire.

    That is what Easter is about.

    The early Christians understood this, and so they kept many ancient Pagan symbols of the spring: they absorbed them, as it were, in part, perhaps, because these symbols are so primal and so beautiful.

    It is, after all, a beautiful world we live in.

    Happy Easter, Peter.


About The Author

Ray Harvey

I was born and raised in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. I've worked as a short-order cook, construction laborer, crab fisherman, janitor, bartender, pedi-cab driver, copyeditor, and more. I've written and ghostwritten several published books and articles, but no matter where I've gone or what I've done to earn my living, there's always been literature and learning at the core of my life.

4 Responses and Counting...

  • Jeanne 03.30.2013

    I love this yearly celebration of new life, even if (especially for me) it’s now mostly based around eating as much chocolate as possible in a startlingly short space of time. Life: what a beautiful thing to watch unfold. It’s wonderful to see the earth turning from its wintery, dormant state into a delicate, green, blossom-covered wonderland as the seasons change.

    Eostre’s freezing-bird-into-hare trick has given me an idea for a painting. Convenient, actually, since I’ve taken the weekend off. 🙂

  • Have a great weekend off. Happy Easter.

  • Liz

    Interesting color choice for the eggs – red and green. Reminds me of another adapted holiday…

  • Yes. A syncretic holiday. And thank you, by the way.

    We missed you last night.

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