The Easter Bunny is one of the great remaining mysteries of our world. Now that the Higgs Boson has been found, only Atlantis can steal the show. And they don't do chocolate in Atlantis, so who cares? Lets go and delve deep into Easter Bunny history and see what we can find. And maybe we can also uncover its hidden friends in high places, who knows.
The first mention of an Easter Hare (right, not a bunny at all) was made in 1672 in the Alsace, the Alemannic speaking region of France bordering Switzerland and Germany. The medical (!) essay containing the reference uses it just to enter into a diatribe against the negative effects of eating too many Easter eggs. It must have been a fairly common sight in the Alsace to get so cavalierly a treatment.
The Alsace, not French speaking, has never looked towards Paris but always to its Alemannic neighbors in Switzerland and Baden. And that is where the Easter Hare went, too. When the Germans and Swiss emigrated into the New World, it cleverly went along as a stow away. It must have been the long voyage that reduced the proud hare to a fluffy bunny. But an Easter Bunny arrived in the Anglo-Saxon world.
The distribution of the Easter Bunny has an uncanny similarity to the Christmas Tree. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? If we could just break into Santa's bunker at the North Pole, I am sure that we would find the two together drinking tea. And maybe we just see elves, where there are hundreds of little bunnies?
Further reading:
Easter Eggs
Santa Claus
Santa's Elves
The first mention of an Easter Hare (right, not a bunny at all) was made in 1672 in the Alsace, the Alemannic speaking region of France bordering Switzerland and Germany. The medical (!) essay containing the reference uses it just to enter into a diatribe against the negative effects of eating too many Easter eggs. It must have been a fairly common sight in the Alsace to get so cavalierly a treatment.
The Alsace, not French speaking, has never looked towards Paris but always to its Alemannic neighbors in Switzerland and Baden. And that is where the Easter Hare went, too. When the Germans and Swiss emigrated into the New World, it cleverly went along as a stow away. It must have been the long voyage that reduced the proud hare to a fluffy bunny. But an Easter Bunny arrived in the Anglo-Saxon world.
The distribution of the Easter Bunny has an uncanny similarity to the Christmas Tree. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? If we could just break into Santa's bunker at the North Pole, I am sure that we would find the two together drinking tea. And maybe we just see elves, where there are hundreds of little bunnies?
Further reading:
Easter Eggs
Santa Claus
Santa's Elves
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