Sacred hares, banished winter witches and pagan worship – the roots of Easter Bunny traditions are ancient
- Tok Thompson for The Conversation
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The Conversation explores the origins of the long and interesting journey the Easter Bunny has taken from European prehistory to today.
Sacred hares, banished winter witches and pagan worship – the roots of Easter Bunny traditions are ancient
The Easter Bunny is a much celebrated character in American Easter celebrations. On Easter Sunday, children look for hidden special treats, often chocolate Easter eggs, that the Easter Bunny might have left behind.
Folklorist Tok Thompson, a professor of anthropology and communications at USC, writes for The Conversation on the origins of the long and interesting journey this mythical figure has taken from European prehistory to today.
Religious role of the hare
Easter is a celebration of spring and new life. Eggs and flowers are rather obvious symbols of female fertility, but in European traditions, the bunny, with its amazing reproduction potential, is not far behind.
In European traditions, the Easter Bunny is known as the Easter Hare. The symbolism of the hare has had many tantalizing ritual and religious roles down through the years.
Hares were given ritual burials alongside humans during the Neolithic age in Europe. Archaeologists have interpreted this as a religious ritual, with hares representing rebirth.
Over a thousand years later, during the Iron Age, ritual burials for hares were common, and in 51 B.C., Julius Caesar mentions that in Britain, hares were not eaten, due to their religious significance.
Caesar would likely have known that in the Classical Greek tradition, hares were sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Meanwhile, Aphrodite's son Eros was often depicted carrying a hare, as a symbol of unquenchable desire.
From the Greek world through the Renaissance, hares often appear as symbols of sexuality in literature and art. For example, the Virgin Mary is often shown with a white hare or rabbit, symbolizing that she overcame sexual temptation.
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