Sex and chocolate

[fluffymark]

Happy Easter/eostre everyone!

Very little sleep last night, despite going to bed about 3am I woke before dawn, and sleep eluded me for the rest of the morning. I'm not renowned for waking early, but today an early rise was fortuitous, as I realized it was Easter, and the dawn has much significance. Easter, of course, is historically a pagan fertility festival, to celebrate rebirth and new life, which was naturally incorporated into the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Christ. In either case, the moment of sunrise is rich with symbolism. So I watched the dawn, and meditated on life and things and felt much rejuvenated for doing so, having celebrated the Easter in my own way. A few days ago, I watched the sunset over the local graveyard, the deep red globe looking old and ancient as it slowly slid behind the aging tombstones, which was both the prettiest and saddest event I've witnessed in a long time. I'm pleased I managed to achieve that contrast.

A fluffy pink bunny rabbit comes along and hands out chocolate eggs to everyone. As far as bizarre explanations go, the Easter bunny beats Santa Claus by a mile when it comes to oddness. The eggs are obviously fertility symbols, and because chocolate is more acceptable nowadays than mass sex orgies, we all get fat on chocolate instead. However, can someone explain the Easter bunny to me? I've never been able to figure out the origin of that. I'm sure I would have remembered fluffy pink rabbits and chocolate eggs if they cropped up in the bible anywhere.

Comments

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I always thought that bunnies were fertility symbols as well. As in 'shagging like...'. Making them pink presumably makes them more acceptable.

[fluffymark]

Maybe - how old is the simile 'shagging like rabbits?' ?
Problem is if they are pink is that they may be gay, and that wouldn't boost fertility very much.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

The Goddess Ostara, from whose name Easter comes, liked hares, which are symbolic of various thingies. More stuff here (http://www.dancinghare.com/europe/). How the Christians managed to get the bunny wabbits shoehorned into a story about a bloke getting nailed to a cross is beyond me, but oh well...

[emomisy.livejournal.com]

But the easter bunny is nothing to do with Christianity.
It'll be a corruption over the years by people, not the church (especially as rabbits got more commen than hares)

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Well yes, but I'd have said the same about easter eggs, until I discovered that eggs feature prominitenly in renaissance architecture in various Italian churches.. if you click through on the link I gave in the previous comment there are references to the rabbit/hare motif within Christianity - now how much of that was purely to incorporate what the people still wanted to believe is up for discussion (and I can't comment either way on the accuracy of the page's content). I agree, I'd have said bunnies and eggs were purely secular, but then again most of the former pagan practices have a funny way of showing up as "accepted aspects" of Christian religious practice.

[fluffymark]

I agree entirely about the eggs. I've been to Italy and seen the churches, and there are indeed egg-symbols in religious artwork about the resurrection. I didn't see any rabbits. I'm inclined to go along with the view the easter bunny is a popular corruption of some original belief (and thankyou for reminding me about the Ostara-hare connection - i'd forgotten about that - it may be the answer), that does seem the best guess so far.

[nipple-salad.livejournal.com]

sex and chocolate... sounds like heaven to me.

[fluffymark]

I agree entirely with you there. It's well known I can be seduced with chocolate. :)