Bunny trail has many side paths

How did the Easter bunny hop his way into a religious holiday? And why does a bunny lay eggs? Well, there's the spring proliferation theory, the ground-nesting bird explanation, the pagan goddess version and the adult joke-on-the-kids story.

The spring proliferation theory points to the rebirth of plants and animals in the springtime. Christian religions connect that rebirth to the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. The springing up of grasses and flowers, buds bursting on trees, birds laying eggs and animals producing young almost seems miraculous, especially in the wake of a cold, snowy winter.

Rabbits are the supreme symbols of fecundity. According to H.A.R.E., Inc, one female rabbit and her daughters and their daughters, etc. can produce more than 184 billion offspring in seven years! [www.bio.miami.edu/hare] So, of course, a rabbit delivering Easter eggs seems the perfect accompaniment to Easter festivities.

The ground nesting bird theory is probably best explained in a book called "The Leaping Hare" by George Ewart Evans. Unlike rabbit species, who nest in burrows, their larger cousins the hares make their nests on the ground. The female simply digs out a shallow depression under a shrub or flattens grass to create what is called a "form." Also unlike rabbit bunnies, hares are born fully furred and with eyes open. The young are able to hop about shortly after birth, but not yet able to feed themselves. The bunnies (called leverets) and their mother meet at the form morning and evening to nurse.

Some birds, such as the quails, ducks, loons and plovers, also make their nests on the ground, sometimes even using unoccupied hare forms. Thus eggs and bunnies are often found in the same areas, which lends a certain credibility to the idea that the Easter bunny, who was originally always referred to as the Easter hare, lays eggs at Easter.

The pagan goddess version associates the Easter Hare with a Teutonic spring fertility deity named Eostra, whose name provides the derivation for the word Easter. The little that is known about Eostra comes from the Anglo-Saxon writings of Venerable Bede. He names the goddess and asserts pagans had celebrated her festivities in a month that became known as Eosturmonath ("Easter month" in modern English) and corresponds to the month of April, which is when the Christian feast of the Resurrection is celebrated.

There is an interesting myth associated with Eostra, though scholars now tend to think of it as of more modern than pagan invention. There are a number of versions of the myth, but generally a young girl finds a dying bird (alternatively, a bird whose wings are frozen) and prays to Eostra to help. The goddess appears, the snow melting under her feet to reveal the rainbow bridge she walks upon. Because the bird is too severely hurt, or because it is not suited to the winter climate, Eostra (or Ostara) turns it into the more adaptive hare. However, once a year on the goddess' feast day, the hare remembers its bird origins and lays rainbow colored eggs.

This story, and the egg hunting traditions surrounding it, was brought from Germany to the United States by immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania in the 1700s. In Germantown, Penn., boys would leave their caps and girls their bonnets in the grass or garden as nest forms for the "Osterhase" (Easter hare). When the children went to reclaim their headpieces on Easter morning, they would find colorful eggs in them. As the tradition spread across the U.S., the hats and bonnets were replaced by decorated Easter baskets and the children had to hunt for the colorful eggs.

The adult joke-on-the-kids story comes from the German physician and botanist Georg Franck von Frankenau who wrote an essay entitled "De Ovis Paschalibus" (On Easter Eggs). Referring to the Alsace region of Germany, von Frankenau wrote: "In Alsace, and neighboring regions, these eggs are called rabbit eggs because of the myth told to children that the Easter bunny is going around laying eggs and hiding them in herb gardens. So the children look for them, even more enthusiastically, to the delight of smiling adults."

In 1949, Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins composed "Here Comes Peter Cottontail." Though it was originally recorded by Mervin Shiner, when cowboy singing star Gene Autry recorded it a year later, the Easter Bunny's popularity soared. An animated television special soon followed and the Easter bunny has been Hippity Hoppity-ing down the bunny trail and into cards, commercials and mall appearances ever since.