why is it that a bunny hides eggs at Easter and not a chicken who has eggs to hide????
199506
It derives from old European fertility symbolism. The hare is a symbol of fertility (think about rabbit reproductive abilities.) Eggs are also fertility symbols. Because spring is a time of rebirth and growth, it is closely associated with fertility symbols. \n\nThere are a number of legends about hares and eggs. One says an old woman placed colorful eggs for children to find and a hare hopped by prompting the children to think the hare had left them. There are more I cannot remember, but they all are related to spring, new growth, fertility, and the spring crop planting.
350012
Why didn't somebody warn me about the fluffy bunnies before I opened this question???
54052
The question that has perplexed us for multiple postings.\n\nThe egg came first, The first chicken came from an egg from something that was not quite a chicken.  Please see this handy movie for more details:
160387
Eighth-century Catholic scholar Venerable Bede claimed that the word was derived from the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, “Eostre.” \n\nIn his book The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop claimed a connection between Easter and the Babylonian goddess Astarte.\n\nEaster Eggs: Since the eating of eggs was formerly forbidden during Lent, “decorated eggs,” claims The Encyclopedia Americana, “could symbolize the end of the penitential season and the beginning of joyful celebration.” \nHowever, reference works agree that the egg was a symbol of life and fertility among idolaters. Says the book Celebrations: “Eggs were said to be dyed and eaten at the spring festivals in ancient Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The Persians of that time gave eggs as gifts at the vernal equinox.”\nThe more pertinent explanation for eating eggs on Easter is that found in The Catholic Encyclopedia: “The custom may have its origin in paganism, for a great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring." (Vol. 5, pp. 225-227)\nConcerning the Easter bunny, this same religious authority states: “The Easter Rabbit lays the eggs, for which reason they are hidden in a nest or in the garden. The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility.\n\nEaster Hares and Rabbits: \nIn Europe, the hare has long been a traditional symbol of Easter. (In North America, the animal is a rabbit—a close relative of the hare.) Yet The New Encyclopædia Britannica explains that the hare was “the symbol of fertility in ancient Egypt.” \nThus when children hunt for Easter eggs, supposedly brought by the Easter rabbit, “this is not mere child’s play, but the vestige of a fertility rite.”—Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, volume 1, page 335.\n\nSunrise Services: Says The Book of Festivals and Holidays the World Over: “It was a common belief among the early Christians that on Easter morning the sun danced in honor of the Resurrection and people rose long before the sun to see the feat. Perhaps this ancient belief is the inspiration for the many sunrise services that take place on Easter morning in all parts of the United States and Europe.”\nBut says Walsh’s Curiosities of Popular Customs: “This idea of the sun dancing on Easter Day may easily be traced back to heathen customs, when the spectators themselves danced at a festival in honor of the sun, after the vernal equinox.”\nThe book Celebrations adds: “Sunrise services are not unrelated to the Easter fires held on the tops of hills in continuation of the New Year fires, a worldwide observance in antiquity. Rites were performed at the vernal equinox welcoming the sun and its great power to bring new life to all growing things.”\n\nWater Rites: The belief that running water on Easter morning is especially blessed is common. However, Hastings’ Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics reminds us: “Since water is one of the essential factors in the preservation of life and the growth of the crops, it naturally plays a conspicuous part in rainmaking ceremonies and other seasonal rites among primitive people.”\n\nThe Blessing of the New Fire: A Catholic rite, in preparation for the Easter vigil, in which a fire is started from a flint rock. Says Hastings’ Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics: “The new fire probably took rise from a pagan custom to which, when adopted by Christians, a gospel symbolism was attached.”\n\nHam Dinners: Ham on Easter is a long-standing custom among many Catholics. However, the custom is a relic of English bigotry. The American Book of Days says that the English had a habit “of eating a gammon of bacon on that day to show their contempt for the Jewish custom of not eating pork.” William the Conqueror, according to the book Celebrations, changed the bacon to ham to suit his liking.\n\nEaster in Ame
63404
cause all chickens do is duck there heads down\n    duh
197380
Mr Bunny\nAlright i don't think he has one, but this website give you your easter bunny name - although i can't think of a reason why?
154010
honestly, God created all creatures, great and small. I believe He created the chicken first and then the chicken laid the eggs. \nMy reason for this answer is because God Created man as an adult and not a baby. Man produced the babies that grew to become adults. \nSo, chickens produced the eggs that eventually became more chickens.\nANSWER: EGG IS MADE OF CHICKEN!
299098
It amuses me at how many people will justify celebrating a pagan holiday and still claim to be christian.\n\nThe Easter egg has nothing to do with the death of Jesus but was a fertility symbol.\n\nJesus was not born in December but end of September start of October.\n\nEven the stories that the churches teach regarding the birth of Jesus are not accurate. The wise man did not turn up on the night Jesus was born but some time after.\n\nA true christian would not celebrate anything to do with false religion.
280917
The chicken had to of come first. The chicken is what god created. If the egg came first then there would be no way for it to survive alone. Just like the questio n "What came first, the child or the parent?" Adam and Eve were the first 2 people on earth, they had the first baby. So it has been said. I don't know what you believe... but the answer is the CHICKEN.
199049
There are several variations of the story of the origins of the Easter Rabbit or the Easter Bunny, or perhaps more correctly, the Easter Hare. The hare was was associated with the Pagan festival celebrating the goddess Eostre (also known as Eastre or Ostara), from which the word Easter is derived. Eostre's earthly symbol was the hare or rabbit. The hare is also symbolically associated with the moon and therefore may have indirectly become associated with Easter since the date of Easter is determined by the phases of the moon (the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring Equinox, March 21).
209009
i think he will give you a rotten egg,or a 6 year old peep that is a rare black color.lol\nHAPPY EASTER!!!
662119
Actually this has a real answer. According to the book "Random Kinds of Factness: 1001 (or so) Absolutely True Tidbits About (mostly) Everything" by Erin Barrett and Jack Mingo the egg came first.\n\nAccording to their research chickens evolved from early Indochina birds called red jungle fowl. Mutations in the jungle fowls eggs produced things more like chickens...these bred with other bird causing more mutations producing todays chicken.\n\nSo the eggs have it!
533692
First, it is only called Easter in Germanic language countries, in the rest of the world, it is called pascha which means passover from pesach.  Oestara had a celebration during the equinox and Pascha tends to fall near the equinox.  Gradually Christianity destroyed the religion of Oestara but the name remains as a vestige.\n\nSecond, eggs have nothing to do with Christianity, however eggs are a sign of life.  The original Easter eggs were called pysanki and had Christian images on them.  All animal products were banned during the Christian fast to replicate the pre-Noah period.  Easter was the first day Christians could eat eggs so they dedicated them to Christ through art.  The practice of decorating eggs preceeds Christianity but Christianity coopted it.  In fact, Easter basked with eggs, cheese and meat are blessed every Easter morning following the Resurrection services for the first meal of the day.\n\nRabbits reproduce at extraordinary rates, they are a symbol of life and innocence.  It also is the case that a handful of societies worshipped animals and Easter falling near the solstice happens to overlap many other observances.  Christianity co-opted other people symbols to destroy their religion.  They took the bunny over in the process.
2238
Egg...just to be different.  And playing devil's advocate on the evolution argument above, maybe a bunch of whatever the precursor to the chicken was just started laying eggs that were chickens when they hatched.  In such a case, it would have been the egg that came first.
145871
Easter is based on a lunar calendar.  It has to do with a specific Sunday after a number days following a full moon.  That's why the date moves around.\n\nI found a good article on www.wikipedia.org that goes into a great deal on the subject.
477437
What?!? The tooth fairy isn't real! Whatever next, soon you'll be saying Santa Claus and the Easter bunny don't exist!
164540
Traditionally, no matter the country, it is Easter Sunday.  The bunny is supposed to come on Sat night and the kids wake up to Easter Eggs and baskets on Sunday.