 Fantasy: March 31, 2021 Issue [#10691] |
This week: Here Comes Peter Cottontail! Edited by: eyestar~*  
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 Happy Spring everyone! I am happy to be this week's editor for a bit of fun and the magic of Easter!
Anyone remember this tune?
Here comes Peter Cottontail
Hoppin' down the bunny trail
Hippity hoppin', Easter's on its way
Bringin' every girl and boy
Baskets full of Easter joy
Things to make your Easter bright and gay
He's got jelly beans for Tommy
Colored eggs for sister Sue
There's an orchid for your mommy
And an Easter bonnet too
Oh, here comes Peter Cottontail
Hoppin' down the bunny trail
Hippity hoppity, happy Easter Day
Here comes Peter Cottontail
Hoppin' down the bunny trail
Hippity hoppin', Easter's on its way
Try to do the things you should
Maybe if you're extra good
He'll roll lots of Easter eggs your way…
This tale has been around a long time, first written in 1949, by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins and made popular by Gene Autry!
Now just how did this cute and popular Easter Bunny dressed in clothes, carrying Easter baskets of decorated eggs come into being?
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 This week's topic was inspired by a young friend of mine asking about the Easter bunny laying eggs, when she knows they have live bunnies. She is crossing from the fantasy to the reality. 
We know bunnies and eggs both represent new life, fertility, spring and have long been symbols in the Christian Easter tradition. But how did the whole Easter bunny mythology begin?
 There is a theory, hard to prove historically that the rabbit was a symbol used in the pagan tradition, the celebration of Eostre, which honoured the saxon goddess of fertility and spring. Truly rabbits suit the idea of fertility as they bear many live young. Still, no laying eggs.
 Now egg decorating may have begun in the 13th c, when eggs were forbidden as a food during the church's Lent season. People would keep their eggs and decorate them to eat them for Easter celebrations. Still, no rabbit deliveries. 
 In the 1700's German immigrants in Pennsylvania brought over their tradition of the Osterhase", a hare who laid colourful eggs to give to good children. Children would make nests for the eggs and come back to collect them. The Easter hare originally played a judge to ascertain behaviours of children at Eastertide.
another tradition in Germany was that children were often given toy rabbits or hares made of canton flannel stuffed with cotton Easter morning and were told this Osterhase laid the Easter eggs.
 Now this takes us back to the deeper goddess tradition relayed above... Ostara was a popular goddess in folklore as a spring time goddess. One story goes that her hare was originally a bird. There are several renditions: Ostara finding a frozen bird turned it to a rabbit, who kept the ability to lay eggs. Or Ostara had a bird who pulled her chariot across the sky but could not endure all the changes so was changed into this furry little creature who then became a symbol of fertility. In honour of its old bird existence, she allowed the bunny to lay eggs one day a year. 
So... there is the mythical tidbit we were searching for
In any case, the tradition became popular in the US and has expanded in its scope to include gifting chocolate, toys, books, gifts etc at Easter time. The Easter egg hunt is always popular.
In other countries it is not always an Easter Bunny! In Australia, watch for the Easter Bilby, an endangered rabbit-like marsupial, In Switzerland, an Easter Cuckoo. Easter foxes and Easter Roosters have been seen out there as well in parts of Germany. No real bunnies laid eggs! Must be magical.
So all you young at hearts, there is always magic. Enjoy your Spring festivals and keep your eyes peeled! You never know!
Thanks for reading my bit of fun!
eyestar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G6F0pyaT7c
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/04/ostara-and-the-hare/
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We still love Easter bunnies!
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