2 weeks Ago
The Easter hare, or Osterhase, as an Easter symbol seems to have its origins in Germany. Many historical records suggest that the Easter bunny originated in Germany where it was first mentioned in German writings in the 1500s. By 1680, the first story about a rabbit laying eggs and hiding them in a garden was published.
A legend holds that, during a famine, a poor woman in a village decorated colorful eggs for children to find in her garden. As soon as the hidden eggs were found by the children, a large hare was seen hopping away. The children associated the hare (Hase) with the eggs.
Like the egg, the rabbit is a symbol of new life and rebirth. Another legend tells of Duchess Rosilinda von Lindenberg and her servant who fled from her home to escape war. They found shelter in an isolated mining village where the people never heard of chickens that laid eggs.
She sent her servant to her home to get news from her husband about the war and instructed him to bring chickens. At Easter she dyed eggs and put them in the nests that the children built. When the children saw the beautiful colored eggs they wondered how the hens could lay such eggs.
A hare sprang from a bush, and they agreed the hare (Hase) laid the eggs. The Easter bunny was introduced to American folklore by German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 1700s. They were referred to as “Dutch” because an English-speaking individual translated Deutsch (German) as Dutch.
During the early 1800s, first edible Easter bunnies in Germany were made of pastry and sugar, not chocolate. Daniel Peter in Switzerland perfected the manufacture of solid milk chocolate in 1875 followed by eating milk chocolate in the 1880s. The Chinese exchanged red eggs as a celebration of spring as early as 1.
000 B.C. The Persians, Egyptians and Romans all revered the egg as powerful.
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