Which Came First, the Bunny or the Egg?

On Easter morning, you’ll find hordes of kids searching for treats from the moment their eyes open. The prospect of finding scads of treats left behind by the Easter bunny, including the ever-important Easter egg, spurs this early-morning enthusiasm.

No matter what your religious orientation, the bunny and the egg manage to crop into the Easter celebration somewhere along the line. But there’s no mention of an Easter bunny or an Easter egg in the Bible, so how did these symbols become important to Christian and secular families alike?

Secular symbols

Kids from non-religious families can easily accept that the bunny is a symbol of fertility and the egg represents renewed life. Both fertility and renewal of life are natural parts of the celebration of springtime. The Earth, which seemed dead for a season, reawakens and teems with greenery and growth. Barnyard babies and budding trees demonstrate nature’s ability to create new generations of life. The earth takes care of all its creatures and we celebrate the cycle with Easter.

Religious reasoning

To Christian families, Easter marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ. During the three days of Jesus’ death, it’s believed that He unlocked the gates of heaven, redeeming humans of their sinful behavior. Because Jesus’ life and death gave believers access to heaven, Easter is the single most important celebration of the calendar year for Christians to celebrate! Although no doctrine mentions marking the occasion with a bunny or an egg, many branches of the church have made at least one of these symbols a part of their annual ritual.

Christian Egg History

In Greece, the Easter celebration begins before midnight on Holy Saturday. After the services, people go home and crack colored eggs while repeating the phrases “The Christ is resurrected” and “He truly is resurrected.” One story claims that egg traditions stem from a visit by Mary Magdalene to the Emperor of Rome after Jesus’ resurrection. She allegedly presented the emperor with a red egg while proclaiming Jesus’ miraculous rising from the dead. The red coloring represented the blood of Jesus, and the egg represented Jesus coming forth from his tomb; it’s contents signifying new life coming from the seemingly dead shell.

Where in the word?

The etymology of the word Easter reveals that it was probably developed from the word “Eastre,” which was the name of the Teutonic goddess of spring and dawn. This etymology also maintains that spring celebrations took place in honor of Eastre long before Jesus ever lived. Eastre’s two most prominent symbols were the hare and the egg because of their obvious link to fertility and renewal. The similarity of this Teutonic tradition to Christian traditions makes it easy to understand why Easter celebrations take place all around the world. Secular and Christian kids may in fact be celebrating the same symbols for the same reason.

No matter whether you’re into Easter to celebrate springtime or dogma, it’s easy to see why this celebration is popular worldwide. And it seems that, at least as far as Easter is concerned, the egg and the bunny arrived in concert.