Since the ancient times, bunnies and hares have been associated with springtime. Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon Goddess was believed to have had a hare as a companion. Hares and rabbits are seen as symbols of fertility and rebirth, as both are known to give birth to large litters in the spring. Christians then changed the symbol of the hare to a rabbit, thus there being an Easter Bunny.

 

The origins of an Easter Bunny bringing children eggs was first conceived among German Lutherans, it playing the role of the judge. Basically, the Easter Bunny is the Easter version of Santa Claus, judging which children had been good or bad. The Easter Bunny was always suggested to carry a basket full of coloured eggs, eggs being another symbol of fertility. 

 

Another source suggests that the Easter Bunny first arrived in the US in the 1700s with German immigrants who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch area and transported their tradition of an egg-laying hare.

 

Do you celebrate Easter with the Easter Bunny? Let us know in the comments below!