Ghost of Easter Past

Babies change a lot in a year! I thought it would be fun to put up some pictures of Georgia from Easter last year to see how much she has grown.


See what I mean!! We really did have a nice Easter. Early breakfast, church service, dinner with some friends and an Easter egg hunt. (Yes, Georgia found three eggs, even though she can't walk. Thank you, Daddy.)

Which got me thinking, where did the Easter Bunny come from? And what's with the eggs? It certainly has nothing to do with Jesus' crucifixion or resurrection. So I did a little reading and researching online, you know, since everything on the Internet is true. There were a few discrepancies, but basically it goes something like this:

Before Christianity, the people of northern Europe worshiped Eostre, the goddess of fertility, during their spring festivals because spring is a time of new life and birth. She was often linked with the hare, which was a symbol of fertility (I think we can all understand that one) and the egg, yet another fertility symbol. Their pagan legend says that Eostre cast the hare into the heavens to form the constellation Lepus the Hare, and gave him the ability to lay eggs once a year.

Then, in order to convert people to Christianity, the hare/eggs were blended into the celebration of the Christian holiday, because the spring festivals were held at the same time as the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. This is first mentioned in some German writings from the 1600s where the Germans changed the hare to Oschter Haws, a rabbit that delivers gifts and colored eggs to good little children. This tradition was brought to America in the 1700s by the Pennsylvania Dutch settlers, and gradually evolved into our Easter Bunny.

So now you know. And while the Easter baskets and egg hunts are all fun and games, it is very important to Andy and me that Georgia knows the full meaning of Christ's death and that our true celebration will be thanks to God for our salvation. Here are a few more pictures from our day: