Easter Origins a Hodgepodge of Tradition

Were you ever curious why Easter involves bunnies and eggs? Or why ham is an Easter dinner favorite? Or, perhaps you are curious where the Easter tradition originated.

The contemporary American Easter traditions are actually a combination of the pagan and Christian ideologies. In the pagan celebration of Easter, participants celebrated the arrival of Spring, prosperity, and “new life.”  Eggs are a symbol of fertility and serve as a cute portrayal of new growth.

In Christianity, Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ three days after he was crucified.

Easter is named after the goddess Eastre; in German, her name is Ostara. Ostara is the goddess of fertility. It was said her presence was felt in the birth of newborns, both animal and human, and the flowering of plants. The rabbit was her sacred animal because of its fast reproduction.

The origin of the Easter bunny arises out of a story of Ostara and a bird. The bird had frozen wings and could not fly, so Ostara transformed him into a snow hare and gave him the gift of speed to protect him from predators. Ostara also gave him one attribute of his former self by allowing him to lay eggs on one day of the year. After angering Ostara, the hare was sent away into the sky as a constellation at the foot of Orion. He was only allowed to come back to earth each Spring to give his eggs to children. Thus, this myth created the Easter bunny and eggs.

Other legends concerning Easter eggs include the idea that Earth was hatched from an egg.

Eating ham on Easter comes from the Pagan tradition of eating the remaining preserved meat from the winter to celebrate the spring season. Pagans would begin fasting to shed excess weight from the winter. This might have been a predecessor to giving up luxuries during Lent.

Shaping candy into bunnies and eggs is common during Easter. The reason why many pagan traditions encourage this practice is embedded in the belief that consuming them allows mankind to gain their characteristics.

All in all, the traditions of Christianity and pagan religions are intertwined in an indistinguishable manner.