Spring
has finally arrived with its natural wonders awakening all around
after months of slumber under a Winter's blanket. The soil's crust
beginning to thaw and crack open as new life reaches out for the
comfort of the sun's warm embrace. With the awakening of life around
him man's first celebration acknowledging the rebirth of nature hops
to attention. Dusting off his furry coat, cleaning out his basket,
the Easter Bunny is ready for duty.
Who
is the Easter Bunny? Is it not simply a cute and gentle creature
with long soft ears and whiskers? That he may be, but in the early
days of Spring this gentle furball has a secondary role to play. He
now delivers little treats to children, appears on greeting cards and
on store window decals. But who is he really, and why is a rabbit
delivering eggs?
The
Easter Bunny has some similarity to Santa Claus, though he is way
more cute than the old dude with the white beard. Our bunny also has
a lower travel expenditure to report as the Easter Bunny has many
more relatives around the world to help with deliveries unlike the
bearded old dude. In fact there are hundreds, thousands, even tens
of thousands of varying types of Easter Bunnies hopping around
putting smiles on the faces of children and shop owners alike.
That
in itself is a clue which helps to track down the origins and
mystical allure of the bunny. Most of us have heard the saying “to
breed like bunnies,” and female rabbits and hares, (it's enough to
say that hares are simply another model of a bunny) sure know what
that means. Female rabbits and hares can conceive a second litter of
offspring whilst still pregnant with the first. This is
scientifically known as superfetation, but science is too cold an
explanation at such a time. It's enough to say that our bunny has
become a symbol of fertility and of Spring.
The
first mention of the Easter Bunny appears to come in Georg Franck von
Frankenau's 'De ovis paschalibus' (About Easter Eggs) in 1682. Our
Easter Bunny is no youngster, just like Santa. North America came
face-to-face with the traditions of the gift bearing bunny in the
18th century. German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch
area retold stories about the “Osterhase,” and according to those
legends only good children received gifts of coloured eggs.
Regardless
of where the legend of the Easter Bunny comes from he is still always
associated with eggs. Everyone knows rabbits do not lay eggs, so why
the egg? As with the cute bunny the brightly decorated egg has been
symbolic with Easter's celebration.
Today
we have the traditionally decorated eggs, eggs coloured with edible
food colouring, chocolate eggs, eggs filled with Smarties, and oh so
much more. Ancient Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians, and Hindus
believed that the world began with an enormous egg, so much for the
mumbo-jumbo of the Earth being flat. Hollywood brought an alien
named Mork in a flying egg, and Carl Faberge turned them into
jewelled treasures.
Eggs
in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility, similar to the
rabbit, though the practice of decorating eggshells is more ancient.
Decorated Ostrich eggs that are 60,000 years old had been found in
Africa. Ostrich eggs decorated in gold and silver were known to be
placed in graves of ancient Sumerians and Egyptians as early as 5,000
years ago. Early Christians of Mesopotamia stained eggs red in
memory of the blood of Christ, and the Christian Church officially
adopted the custom of regarding the eggs as a symbol of the
resurrection in 1610 AD, in a prayer by Pope Paul V.
Both
Western and Eastern Christianity prohibited the consumption of eggs
during Lent and other traditional fast days. Today fasting seems to
be more a political diversion or a publicity stunt. Within the
Christian faith fasting is held to symbolize the cleansing of both
the body and soul in preparation for the celebration of Christ's
resurrection. In the Eastern Orthodox faith baskets of coloured eggs
and other Paschal foods such as paskha, kulich or Easter breads were
brought to the Church for blessing.
Celebration
brings with it in course joy and games, the traditional Easter egg
hunt is a game where eggs may be hidden indoors and out for children
to search out. The child with the largest number of eggs found wins
a prize. Another traditional game played in many countries such as
Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Ukraine, Russia, Serbia, and more, is the
tapping of hard boiled eggs where each player hits the other player's
egg with their own. The winner is simply the player with the last
intact egg, and the prize is up to anybody's imagination. European
settlers brought with them, as they populated the New World, a
tradition of egg rolling, a game played by children who would roll
eggs down hillsides at Easter. It is a tradition that continues to
this day each Easter on the White House lawn. Later the egg shells
are used as a carpet at press conferences.
Regardless
of what country or tradition, eggs have been a part of Easter
celebrations for centuries. Whether one prefers the brightly
decorated Easter eggs or the cute Easter Bunny, it is the meaning
behind such a celebration that we all share. To some it is a deep
religious time symbolizing sacrifice and rebirth. Others simply
celebrate the awakening of nature after Winter's slumber. In the end
we all share in the commonality of celebration of life.
Yet
one question remains unanswered, begging to be asked. Santa knows
that each December 24th is the day he trains for all year.
The Easter Bunny does not have that luxury, as Easter changes year
to year. Research has provided this explanation, “Easter is the
Sunday following the paschal full moon.”
Mind you this explanation needs an explanation.
Wikipedia
explains that the paschal full moon refers to the ecclesiastical full
moon of the northern spring used in the determination of the date of
Easter. It is warned on Wikipedia that the calculations to determine
the date of the paschal full moon are “somewhat complex.”
The brief description is as follows: “Nineteen civil
calender years are divided into 235 lunar months of 30 and 29 days
each (the so-called “Ecclesiastical moon.”) The period of 19
years (the metonic cycle) is used because it produces a set of civil
calendar dates for the ecclesiastical new moon. Exactly one
ecclesiastical new moon in each year falls on a date between March 8
and April 5, both inclusive. This begins the paschal lunar month for
that year, and thirteen days later is the paschal full moon. Easter
is the Sunday following the paschal full moon. In other words,
Easter falls from one to seven days after the paschal full moon, so
that if the paschal full moon is on a Sunday, Easter is the following
Sunday.”
A
slightly simpler explanation was found on About.com, here it
said “Easter is called a moveable feast because it is not
celebrated on a fixed date every year. Easter falls somewhere
between late March and late April each year, following the cycle of
the moon. After several centuries of disagreement, all churches
accepted that Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon
which is the first full moon on or after March 21.”
Adding
to the mix one cannot eliminate the fact that Eastern Orthodox
Christians use a different set of arithmetical parameters in their
calculations. In 2013 Easter Sunday for Eastern Orthodox Christians
will be Sunday May 5th.
It
is understandable why the Easter Bunny simply kicks back till he sees
the red light blinking, and then he hops into action. So whether it
is a spiritual emotion or simply a celebration of life, raise a
glass, crack an egg, hug a bunny and enjoy.
Send comments to: demtruth@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment