why do we get given Chocolate Easter Eggs at Easter?
401098
because jesus was resurrected and a giant bunny rabbit flew down and gave everyone chocolate eggs
184644
I always get asked if the Easter bunny is real.\n\nI always tell the children to go ask their parents.
368525
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
86970
We give our kids a valentine every year.... usually a box of chocolates and a card. It makes them feel special and loved. i remember feeling that way when my mom and dad gave us valentines as kids. you can make your as simple or as fancy as you wish, just a token of love.
846412
The easter Bunny and the Easter eggs are both symbols used in the Pagen religion, that time of year is their fertility celebration and the Bunny and the Egg both symolize fertility. Estres (not sure on that spelling) is the godess of fertility, Easter is derived from that name.\n\nHalloween is also Pagen \n\nThe Christmas tree is also Pagen
384691
Going to church for today. We did an Easter egg hunt earlier in the week with my two married sisters and their children. After three rounds of the children finding the eggs the adults hid, the fourth round was reversed, and adults had to find the (hard-boiled) eggs the children hid. It was hard! There's still one somewhere in the living room we couldn't find! Usually we celebrate Easter with reading part of the New Testament or Book of Mormon about Christ's death and resurrection. My little brother is 18 and too old for Easter baskets. My mom used to make "bunny bread" in the shape of a large bunny, or bunny rolls which included a little "tail" in the middle.
469584
Easter Hares and Rabbits: In 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.” Thus 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\n“Ancient pagans used the rabbit as a symbol of the abundant new life of the spring season. . . . The first record of the bunny as an Easter symbol is found in Germany about 1572,” says The Catholic Encyclopedia for School and Home. Likewise, the Easter-time use of hot cross buns, brightly colored eggs, or chocolate bells has its roots in pagan religion. And, incredibly, the very name Easter (used in some languages) relates to a pagan deity. The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible states that Easter was “originally the spring festival in honor of the Teutonic goddess of light and spring known in Anglo-Saxon as Eastre. As early as the 8th century the name was transferred by the Anglo-Saxons to the Christian festival designed to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.”
94574
I have some spoiled easter eggs from last year \nand coconuts ;-)
888231
They were given out at easter they are a special nontransferable holiday gift.
218103
The day the bunny comes and lays  (chocolate) eggs. LOL !\n\nJust because all others already said the same day.
348118
The Easter bunny is a symbol of fertility and rebirth, so I'm told. And a similar line of thought is also applied to the symbolism of Easter eggs. \n\nThe Easter bunny as an entity of itself does not exist, but it is a way to get kids interested in the holiday of Easter and as they get a little older (7+ or so), the real meaning of Easter can be introduced and comprehended by the child. \n\nI do have a vision of what I pictured the Easter bunny to look like when I was little, and it was something along the lines of the man in the Easter bunny costume that I saw at the mall. \n\nI have a lot of awesome Easter memories from my childhood. It did not hurt me to believe in both the Resurrection of Christ AND the Easter bunny. One I outgrew, the other is still with me. Happy Easter to you and your family!
224828
For those of us who believe.  Easter is when we take the time to remember/reflect the time when our Savior Jesus Christ was sacrificed on the cross in order to save our souls, so that we may be forgiven our sins and allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven.
1164826
its easter bunny magic
301068
Easter is derived from an ancient Germanic name for the month of April, Eostremonat--or rather Eostre Month, in dedication to the goddess Eostre. Eostre, or Ostara was a German goddess of fertility and her return was marked by the coming of spring and the sun. The Ost in her name refers to the East--the rising of the sun. The rebirth of the day and the rebirth of the spring were her specialties, and her celebrations occured during the vernal equinox--the first day of spring. Of course calendar dates have gotten juggled about for quite a few different reasons over time and now April is no longer where it once was on the calendar at what is now March 21st.\n\nThe rabbit was a traditional symbol of the goddess because of its great fertility, and the fact that the coming of spring marked the time when all of the little bunnies were seen starting to be born.\n\nWhen Christianity became the predominant religion it was an easy transition to introduce the rebirth of the Christ figure into the already extant birth and rebirth tradition. Old ways die hard, and the bunny stuck around. \n\nAlthough there are several explanations for the eggs the Easter bunny brings, (other than eggs are another traditional symbol of birth/rebirth) the most likely is that eggs were forbidden during the fast of lent, and were decorated and eaten in abundance to mark the end of the fast.\n\nGerman protestants although breaking with Roman Catholocism liked the egg tradition and kept it. And when German immigrants came to America, they brought with them the traditions of the Osterhase (Easter hare) and his eggs.\n\nInasmuch as Christianity has stolen the ancient goddess' name for their own holiday, it seems only fitting that its original mascot still puts in an appearance each year.
343153
Ooooooooooooooh pick me pick meeeee!!!\nI want one , i want one !!!!! Pleaseeee pleeeeeeese .Ooooooooooh i want a white chocolate one            \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAll hail the easter bunny .) hmmmmmm chocolate *drools*
438748
most kids think easter bunny when they think of easter.  It is supposed to be a day of religion but most people eat chocolate and hide eggs.
354654
It is the continuation of folk traditions from the days when Christianity was not the biggest religion in Europe.\n\nThe rabbit is the sacred animal of the Goddess Ostara (Eostre), Goddess of the Spring Equinox, for whom Easter is named (nothing Christian about the name "Easter").  The rabbit symbolizes fertility.  The male rabbit who lays eggs breaks the laws of species (mammals don't lay eggs) and sex (males don't either), to symbolize the power of the Goddess of Spring Fertility to transcend the limitations of the world.  The eggs are symbols of the soul, and the coloring of them goes back to the pre-Christian worship, at the Spring Equinox, of the sacred relationship of the soul to the fertility of the natural world.\n\nLike the Christmas Tree, when Europeans became Christian, they couldn't bear to part with their traditional folkways, so they put a thin veneer of Christianity on top.