why are bunnies incorporated with easter?
471588
absolutely nothing.\nits just that spring is the season of birth: hence eggs, baby bunnies and stuff liek that.\neaster, to a lotta people, is the symbol that spring is really here.
253879
I am not an attorney, but based upon the change from "Easter Vacation" to "Spring Break" and "Christmas Vacation" to "Winter Break" I would think it ill-advised to have much discussion about Easter in a publicly-funded school.  Because Easter is a Christian celebration of the Resurrection of Christ I don't know how that could be discussed in a school setting without offending non-Christian parents, atheists, and so on. \n\nPerhaps the Easter Bunny is a safe topic. The Easter bunny has its origin in pre-Christian fertility lore. The Hare and the Rabbit were the most fertile animals known and they served as symbols of the new life during the Spring season.\n \nThe bunny as an Easter symbol seems to have it's origins in Germany, where it was first mentioned in German writings in the 1500s. The first edible Easter bunnies were made in Germany during the early 1800s. And were made of pastry and sugar.  http://www.holidays.net/easter/bunny1.htm\n\nThe Easter Bunny is not a religious figure so I would think you could discuss him. I do not think, however, that you can discuss the Easter egg, as it seems to have ties to Christianity.\nSee http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8149/egg.html\n\nAltough, it depends upon which website you look at regarding colored eggs.  This site says, "Egyptians and Persians used to dye eggs in spring colors and give them to friends as a symbol of renewed life long before Christ was born." http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=102&category=life\n\nI think I'd play it safe and have a celebration of the return of spring.  :-)
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
218103
The day the bunny comes and lays  (chocolate) eggs. LOL !\n\nJust because all others already said the same day.
853152
We celebrate it because it is the birth of Jesus Christ. We (Christians) also celebrate Easter because it was then that Jesus awoke from the dead, three days after He was crucified.
424244
"The English and German names, "Easter" and "Ostern", ... are instead related to ancient names for the month of April, Eostremonat and Ostaramanoth respectively. According to the 8th century Christian monk and historian Bede, this month was dedicated to the pagan fertility goddess Eostre. The Easter Bunny is often identified as a remnant of this fertility festival, although there is no evidence of any link."\n\nIn other languages the name for "Easter" is derived from the hebrew "Pesach" for the Passover holiday (ex french: Pâques, spanish: Pascua).  Only in the Germanic languages is it based on the older holiday.
538875
The true meaning of Easter has nothing to do with Jesus. Some Christians decided that's when they were going to have one of their festivals because they thought that stealing Pagan dates, etc. would encourage more Pagans to convert to Christianity. Easter, or Eostre, is a Pagan godess of fertility. That's what the eggs and bunnies are all about.
310666
easter is the day that jesus ressurected and people celebrate it to honor that.  its the day that lint is over and most (religious) people go to church.  the whole easter egg thing probably began because eggs symbolize life and whatnot and somewhere in the past it turned into a hunt for children to do.  and easter is always celebrated on the 3rd sunday of april.  the wednesday before is passover and the friday before is good friday.
334604
It is based on Pagan traditions of fertility rites. The "rabbit" has lots of babies in the springtime. "Eggs" represent the fertility of a woman. in eating of the eggs, the woman will become fertile and hopefully have lots of kids, thus becoming like the rabbit.
342527
edit - \nGerman Protestants wanted to retain the Catholic custom of eating colored eggs for Easter, but did not want to introduce their children to the Catholic rite of fasting. Eggs were forbidden to Catholics during the fast of Lent, which was the reason for the abundance of eggs at Easter time.\n\nThe idea of an egg-laying rabbit came to the United States in the 18th century. German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children about the "Osterhase" (also: "Oschter Haws"). "Hase" means "hare", not rabbit, and in Northwest European folklore the "Easter Bunny" indeed is a hare, not a rabbit.\n\nOnly good children received gifts of colored eggs in the nests that they made in their caps and bonnets before Easter. Presumably, the Oschter Haws laid them when the children were not looking.
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.
211622
because they do - directly and indirectly.\nEaster Eggs:\nAccording to the ancient tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church , Mary Magdalene was a wealthy woman from whom Christ expelled seven "demons." On Easter morning she was the first to bear witness to his resurrection. She is called "Equal to the Apostles." The Eastern tradition tells us that after the Ascension she journeyed to Rome where she was admitted to the court of Tiberius Caesar because of her high social standing. After describing how poorly Pilate had administered justice at Jesus' trial, she told Caesar that Jesus had risen from the dead. To help explain his resurrection she picked up an egg from the dinner table. Caesar responded that a human being could no more rise from the dead than the egg in her hand turn red. The egg turned red immediately, which is why red eggs have been exchanged at Easter for centuries in the Byzantine East. \nEaster Bunny:\nThe day we celebrate as Easter was formerly a pagan holiday. The church decided to set the date for the resurrection of Jesus at the spring solstice, and then named it for a Celtic pagan feast day they wished to eradicate. It was named for Eostre, the goddess of the spring, and fertility. She was depicted with a white rabbit (the Easter Bunny).
445663
eggs are the sign of new life. And Easter is the day Jessus rose from the dead.
1178083
There are more at Easter if you count the chocolate ones.\n\nThere are over 40 breeds of rabbits in the world each producing 4 - 8 liters a year.  You do the math...
652973
The association of eggs with the Easter Bunny is actually a recent one. It seems to be the result of an ad campaign by European candy makers who wanted to advertise their product. The egg, long a symbol of fertility, had long been a traditional staple of Easter celebrations. The pairing of the Easter Egg and the Easter Bunny at the end of the nineteenth century was not only a stroke of marketing genius, but also well-founded in the traditions of the past.
452284
usually sometime in march, although some people have now for easter
90757
Almost all of the Christian Holidays are on top of Pagan Holidays. Easter is on top of Ostera. Bunnies and eggs are pagan symbols of spring and fertility. \n\nHallowe'en is a Pagan holiday, but most people don't know where the holiday origins are from. Pagans call the day Samhain. The old God dies on this day, and the Goddess mourns him until his rebirth at Yule (Christmas - Winter Solstice). The Catholic Church created All Saint's Day (November 1) as a holy day to recognize all the Catholic saints. But it wasn't a powerful enough idea to wipe out the traditional Hallowe'en celebrattions. Ironically, many Christians don't approve of the celebration of Halloween because of its Pagan origins, not realizing that almost all of the holidays they observe had Pagan beginnings.\n\nChristmas is on the Winter Solstice. Even non-Pagans use the term "Yule" around the Christmas holidays. Yule is celebrated on the Winter Solstice (December 22nd), on the shortest day of the year. Since the days get longer from this point in the year, Yule is a celebration of the returning sun and the rebirth of the Pagan God who died at Hallowe'en. As with Easter, the Christian story of the birth of Jesus fits nicely with the Pagan mythology of a "God" reborn. Traditions such as wreaths and Yule logs are remnants of the original beliefs. Gifts were exchanged at Yule long before the Wise Men offered their gifts to the baby Jesus.\n\nGroundhogs Day, although not specifically a Christian holiday, is on the day of the Pagan Holiday called Candlemas (or Imbolc) that is celebrated on February 2nd. Because spring is just starting to show itself at this time of year, there were various superstitions about predicting the weather, and how long it would be until the end of winter. The original idea was to watch for a hedgehog, but as people immigrated to North America, the tradition changed to a ground hog, since we didn't have hedgehogs here.\n\nThe reasons Christian holidays are celebrated on the Pagan holidays is because in the early era of the Christian Church in Europe they were having trouble getting the peasants and simple folk to accept the Christian faith, so they placed the Christian Holidays at the same time as the Pagan Celebrations for that everyone would be happy. By blending the two together it was easier to convert the people to Christianity.