The Easter Bunny- a staple in some childhoods, or just a well-known character used for the marketing put into the Catholic Easter as a holiday.
He’s everywhere, from being sold as chocolate, to plushies, to even featuring as a fictional character in certain children’s media. (eg, Rise of the Guardians)
Nonetheless, it doesn’t matter where we’ve first heard of him, everybody is aware of his existence, and some children even believe in the Easter Bunny as they do in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
Personally, I never believed in the existence of the Easter Bunny, however that may just be because my family isn’t Catholic, and so we don’t celebrate the same easter as most do. We have a separate Easter, with no characters attached.
Even if we did celebrate the Easter on March 31st, I doubt I’d believe in something as absurd as a rabbit that went around and hid eggs around my yard and house. He’s more so become more of a fun character rather than something to believe in, but either way, candy companies will most likely never let him go when selling their products during the month of March.
At this point, when we think of Easter as a holiday, the bunny is most likely one of the first few things that crosses our minds. A perfect example of commercialism, once more.
I don’t exactly mean to make everything about commercialism and capitalism, however America as a country certainly did- in subtext. Read between the lines!
Now I’m not telling you to hate on the Easter Bunny, I don’t have anything against him. I’m just pointing out how he’s not even a part of the actual meaning of Easter, and he just sort of appeared and rose sales.
The Easter Bunny derives from the “Easter Hare,” a concept developed sometime in the 1700s by pagan Germans in America just to make children behave by having another somewhat religiously inspired character to believe in.
The egg hunts were a pagan tradition, as well, and eventually became mainstream. I’m not sure many adults even make an attempt to have their kids believe the Easter Bunny went and hid the eggs before egg hunts nowadays.
I think my elementary teachers before, like, third grade made an attempt to convince us so, along with the existence of leprechauns breaking into our classroom to hide chocolate coins, or something of the sort, but I think we did reach a point (as a society) where nobody cared enough.
Maybe some newer generation kids still believe in him, I wouldn’t know, I’ve never, and still don’t plan on attending an egg hunt for an Easter I don’t even celebrate.
Maybe I’m thinking of the wrong age group- it’s a bit more reasonable if toddlers are being told these stories. They might be the target audience for the Easter Bunny in this day and age.
The significance of egg hunts, in my opinion however, might have just nothing to do with the Easter Bunny directly. The exact origin isn’t really known, per se, but eggs are of significance in the Orthodox Easter, as well (May 5); we dye hard boiled eggs red and see who’s egg is the most durable by going up against other family members and/or friends in rounds. Less colorful in comparison to the blues, pinks, purples, and such in the Easter egg hunts, but fun for all ages.
So, the Easter Bunny is less thought-out than that. Corporate schemes are in the play when it comes to him.