Eggs, bunnies and Easter

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

Why do we call it Easter?

That word - "Easter"- does not in itself mean anything religious. At most, it indicates a direction, or perhaps a spring festival. It doesn't, in its roots dating to around the year 900 AD, have much to do with our religious feast of the resurrection of Christ.

	E a s t e r

Word experts tell us that "Easter" comes from either an Old English word éastre, or a Germanic word Ostern, both of which are similar words for the direction East. But they also refer to a goddess - Eostre - the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, who may have developed from the Roman goddess Aurora, the goddess of dawn. The month associated with Eoster, was called Eostur-monath and roughly coincided with our April.

During the early Middle Ages, the great historian and Christian monk, the Venerable Bede (d. 735), wrote "The Reckoning of Time," in which he addressed the history of the English months. In doing so, he linked Eostur-monath with "Paschal month" and said Eostre's name was why the English - and then most of Europe - called the Paschal feast "Easter."

The original name for Easter was Pascha, a Greek word that came from the Hebrew word pesach, or the Passover. Early Christians believed Christ's death to be the fulfillment of the Passover tradition. As Paul wrote in the first letter to the Corinthians, "Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed" (1Cor 5:7).

The word Paschal is still commonly used for the Easter season and for Easter events in the church. For example, the candle lit at the Easter Vigil is known as the Paschal candle. And the Paschal Mystery - the passion, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ - is the center of the Mass and all our liturgical celebrations.

So we know why it is called Easter more often than Pascha. And the link between Christ's Passover and Easter lambs is easy to see. But where did we get bunnies and eggs and chicks from?

Bunnies, or the Easter rabbit, take us back to the goddess Eostre. Because she was a goddess of spring, she was also a fertility goddess. And one of her symbols was the hare, a prolific animal, similar to the rabbit, but not as cute and cuddly.

Some might think that, since the egg is also a fertility symbol, it is also linked to Eostre and her spring rites. But that does not explain the link of eggs and Easter.

Eggs were long a symbol of new life in the ancient Middle East, even into China, and ancient Egypt, as well as Rome. Certainly, the hard shell from which new life - in the form of chicks - breaks forth could not help but also remind early Christians of the resurrection.

However, we can probably thank devotion to Mary Magdalene for the tradition of colored Easter eggs. There are legends, tracing at least back to Eastern Europe, that say Mary Magdalene, after the resurrection, went to Rome to preach at the imperial court of Tiberias. When he heard her, the emperor picked up an egg from the table and said that a man rising from the dead was as likely as that egg turning red. Mary took the egg and it changed in her hand.

Another legend, also from Poland, says that Mary and the Virgin Mary were carrying a basket of eggs when they followed Jesus to the cross. They placed the basket on the ground near the cross, and the eggs were died red by Christ's blood.

Tiberias' skepticism with Mary Magdalene, echoes Paul's words in 1Cor 17: "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." The resurrection above all constitutes the confirmation of all Christ's works and teachings. Easter, the Paschal feast, is our confirmation that - as absurd as life coming from colored eggs and a person rising from the dead may seem - the Crucified One lives. And we have faith that we, too, will live for eternity through Christ. That is why we sing Alleluia and the bells ring at Mass again.

About those bells - they're related to rabbits. At least the Easter bunny. In countries of ancient Rome's province of Gaul (including France and Belgium), the Easter bunny doesn't bring eggs or candy. Easter bells do. Since bells are silenced in church towers from Holy Thursday until Easter, the legend says that the bells travel to Rome to see the pope and return on Easter morning, filled with candy and eggs and other treats that fall out as they begin to peal with Easter joy.

Bells, eggs, bunnies and chickens. All humble and familiar things that are used to proclaim that, in the risen Christ, all things are made new.

(Sources: The Catholic Encyclopedia; monasteryicons.com; infoplease.com; en.wikipedia.com; theholidayspot.com; and dictionary.com)