Easter reimagined: the Easter Bunny tradition between myth, humanity and modern psychology

Introduction: to the origin - why does a rabbit of all things bring Easter eggs?

Why does a rabbit of all things bring Easter eggs? An animal that does not lay eggs becomes a messenger of fertility? This apparent absurdity is no coincidence, but a mirror for what Easter is actually about: the unexpected, the wondrous, the versatile. Easter is more than a religious festival. It is a cultural anchor in the depths of community, loss and hope.

The seemingly absurd – a rabbit that lays eggs – has spread and survived since it was first mentioned as a cultural constant. Why? Because it is not about logic, but about meaning. The Easter Bunny stands for the intangible that is nonetheless effective. For the living that does not need to be explained. In a world that increasingly confuses explainability with certainty, our belief in the Easter Bunny reminds us that some truths can only exist in stories. It is precisely these stories – childlike, enigmatic, cross-generational – that sustain rituals and shape communities.

The Easter Bunny's tradition of bringing eggs is initially nothing more than a popular custom in Alsace. It marks the transition from paganism to Christianity, from the visible to the symbolic. The dissertation ‘De ovis paschalibus’ from 1682 mentions that the rabbit – or more precisely: Master Hare – lays the eggs that children then search for. This idea has nothing to do with the romanticised inventions of the 19th century about a supposed Germanic pagan fertility cult around the fertility goddess Ostara, nor with the Christian reference to the resurrection of Jesus. after the first full moon in spring.

Painting Easter eggs, colouring hard-boiled eggs, hiding eggs in the garden: all this is part of a complex psychological use of the symbol ‘egg’. It is made visible, painted, coloured – and then made invisible again. Children look for it, adults cook it, whole events at Easter revolve around this act. The fact that a rabbit, of all things, brings eggs makes it clear how much of the Easter season is not meant to be read literally, but symbolically. The word Easter thus refers not only to a season, but to a deeply rooted need for resurrection – in a spiritual, psychological and collective sense.

Such an introduction is not harmless. It raises the big question: What nourishes us when control fails? What gives us meaning when everyday life derails? Easter answers with an image: a rabbit brings an egg. We encounter life not as an answer, but as a gift. At a time when self-optimisation has become a religion, Easter offers a different perspective: that of receiving, of transformation, of childlike wonder.

What it's about:

• Why Easter is associated with fertility and abstinence at the same time

• How the Easter bunny became a symbol for more than childlike joy

• What the differences between global Easter customs tell us about ourselves – and how Easter is celebrated in other countries

• Why rituals like egg hunting are more psychologically effective than they appear

What is Easter? A shift from death to resurrection

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and takes place after the first full moon in spring – a symbolic connection between the cosmic order, natural cycles and religious belief. For many Christians, Easter is the most important holiday of the year: it commemorates the resurrection, the breaking of finitude, the promise that even in death new life will sprout.

But Easter is not only significant in a theological sense. It also reflects existential questions: What comes after loss? What happens to me in a crisis? The Easter season, with its transitions – from Maundy Thursday to Good Friday and Holy Saturday to the Easter Vigil – forms an emotional arc that comes to a head during Holy Week. It begins with the remembrance of the Last Supper (Maundy Thursday), continues with Good Friday as a day of mourning and silence, and leads through the shadow of Holy Saturday to the Easter Vigil.

So Easter represents a spiritual movement: from endurance to hope, from renunciation to trust, from the visible to the invisible. Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, is not an ascetic goal in itself, but opens up a space for inner reflection. During this time, we renounce excess in order to make the essential visible again – similar to the psychological process of reduction to the essential.

For many families, Easter also means a shared ritual. Whether it's the Easter bonfire, the Easter mass or painting eggs – these moments create collective experiences. And that is precisely what makes Easter so effective: it combines the symbol of fertility with that of spiritual renewal. Colourful eggs, painting boiled eggs, hiding and finding – these customs are not harmless children's games, but rituals that mediate between death and life.

At its core, Easter remains a psychological offering: the confidence that even after deep retreat, there will be light again.

Originally Christian: the symbolic architecture of Easter

Easter has its origin in the central message of Christianity: the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. This resurrection is understood as a triumph over death and forms the spiritual core of the entire church year. Easter thus not only stands for the end of suffering, but also for the opening up to a new form of existence – a symbol that reaches far beyond the theological context.

The liturgical sequence of Holy Week contains a symbolic dramaturgy that has a profound emotional impact. It begins with Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, continues with the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday as the day of the crucifixion, and finally leads to Holy Saturday – a day of silence and emptiness. Finally, at the Easter Vigil, the light is rekindled: a central gesture of Christian hope. In many communities, this light is kindled from the Easter fire – an ancient practice with pagan origins that Christianity has integrated.

Lent, which begins with Ash Wednesday, structures not only the liturgical calendar but also personal experience. It calls on us to part with the superfluous – not as a punishment, but as an invitation to focus on the essential. Abstaining from meat, alcohol or consumerism is an expression of an inner movement that is directed towards Easter. This period of preparation for the resurrection is hidden in this renunciation – a form of spiritual concentration.

On Good Friday, a state-protected day of silence, the suffering and death of Jesus are the focus. It is a day that allows collective mourning and invites people to come to terms with their own limitations and fractures. This collective commotion creates a transition to the Easter Vigil, when new life is celebrated as a divine gift.

On Easter Sunday, the actual high point of Easter, the resurrection is finally celebrated – with Easter Mass, the festive meal, with songs and prayers. In many cultures – even where Easter is celebrated in other countries – there are parallels: light processions, breaking bread together, painting and colouring Easter eggs as a symbol of overcoming death.

The story of the Easter bunny and Easter as a whole is not just about tradition and custom, but also a deep psychological response to existential experiences: loss, change, new beginnings.

Pre-Christian roots: what hares, eggs and fire reveal

Long before Easter was celebrated as a Christian festival, there is evidence that rituals surrounding the return of spring existed throughout early history. These customs reflect a deep awareness of natural cycles, of the dying and returning of all life. The spring equinox in particular symbolically marked a transition from darkness to light, from retreat to growth.

At the centre of many of these spring festivals was fertility – not only in the biological sense, but also as a cosmic principle of renewal. The hare or rabbit, as animals with a particularly high reproduction rate, were seen as an expression of abundant vitality. The connection between hares and fertility is therefore seemingly obvious. However, the idea that this led to the development of popular figures such as Master Hare, who later became part of Easter traditions as the Easter Bunny, is nonsense. The claim that the Easter bunny goes back to fertility goddesses like Ostara does not stand up to scrutiny. Instead, the origin of the Easter bunny shows how traditions arise – not through divine inspiration, but through social practices, migration and symbol shifting.

The Easter egg also does not come from festivals of the Germanic fertility goddess. Rather, Easter eggs are associated with Lent. Eggs were considered a forbidden food during Lent and were boiled to preserve them. From this, the egg hunt developed, as did the colouring of eggs, the hiding of Easter eggs and the joy of finding a particularly large number of them. They are not modern versions of ancient ritual customs. (see below)

Only the Easter fire was a pagan custom that goes back to the solstice and ritual purification. The fact that this fire is lit today on Holy Saturday before the Easter Vigil is an example of how pagan origins and Christian liturgy have become intertwined.

But even without romanticised mythical Germanic origins, the use of these symbols – rabbit, egg, fire – around Easter, which have such different ages, illustrates how strongly psychological archetypes are embedded in the collective consciousness. They are not just relics of times gone by, but powerful images that take on new meaning with each new generation. Whether children today believe that the Easter bunny brings eggs or simply enjoy painting and searching for them – it remains an invitation to look beyond what is visible.

In this sense, the custom of painting, hiding and giving eggs at Easter is more than just a game. It is cultural memory in action – a living tradition that brings Easter to life beyond all dogmas.

The Easter Bunny: From Myth to Mythical Figure

The story of the Easter Bunny begins with children's stories that find their way into a medical-folkloric treatise: in 1682, the Heidelberg physician Georg Franck von Franckenau mentioned a strange custom from Alsace in his dissertation De ovis paschalibus. Children there believed that a hare – later known as Master Hare – laid coloured eggs in the spring and hid them in gardens. This belief in the Easter Bunny was thus very regionally limited before it could become a widespread part of the Easter festival. What began as a regional custom quickly became part of the larger narrative around Easter. With emigrants, the figure of the rabbit came to North America in the 18th century, where it was passed on under the name Easter Bunny in the German-born community of the Pennsylvania Dutch. There, the Easter Bunny developed into a figure who brings eggs – a figure who checks and rewards children while promoting the joy of searching. So that the Easter Bunny brings eggs only became a widespread custom in middle-class households in the 19th century.

In contrast to dogmatic religious figures, the Easter Bunny is a projective figure: he has no face, no voice, no doctrine. He works by suggestion, not by sermon. Children believe in him because he leaves traces – colourfully dyed eggs, hidden nests, little surprises. Belief in the Easter Bunny unfolds its power precisely because it does not have to be proven. Like every powerful symbolic figure, he moves between reality and imagination, between custom and meaning.

The Easter Bunny is known all over the world not just because of its cuteness. It is its ambiguity that makes it so adaptable. In many cultures – for example, where Easter is celebrated in other countries – there are related customs: bells that bring gifts, birds that lay eggs, or other messengers of spring. The story of the Easter Bunny is thus part of a long tradition of seasonal figures that mark transitions – from the old to the new, from darkness to light, from doubt to hope.

Why eggs, of all things? An invitation to decode

Easter eggs are much more than decorative objects: they encapsulate ancient ideas of fertility, transformation and inner potential. The custom of painting, colouring and hiding eggs at Easter reflects a collective need to make transitions visible – from the old to the new, from the inner to the outer, from the hidden to the displayed.

Even in pre-Christian cultures, eggs were considered a symbol of fertility. They were cooked, painted or buried for ritual purposes – as an offering to the earth or as a spring greeting to the goddess of fertility. In the Christian interpretation, the egg became an image for the empty grave: closed on the outside, full of life on the inside. The resurrection of Jesus was thus made symbolically tangible through the egg – a symbol of resurrection and indestructible life.

During Lent, the consumption of eggs was forbidden. To preserve them, they were boiled and collected – a practical origin that gave rise to the custom of giving lots of eggs at Easter. These hard-boiled eggs were painted in bright colours, dyed with natural colours or decorated with elaborate symbols. Painting eggs became part of a family ritual that spanned generations – a rite of passage with therapeutic potential.

The practice of hiding eggs and letting people search for them opens up a playful approach to a deeper message: not everything that counts is immediately visible. The search for what is important – love, trust, hope – is staged in a way that is suitable for children. Even today, wherever there are eggs, there is searching, laughter and amazement. The custom connects the community with inner resonance.

Particularly in countries where Easter is celebrated in different ways, the egg remains a constant cultural marker. Whether boiled, painted, coloured, hidden or eaten – the Easter egg is a symbol that changes and yet remains true to itself. It reminds us that sometimes life begins in the smallest of things – in a shell, in a gesture, in a moment of silence when you hold an egg in your hand and realise what it means: anything is possible.

Psychological dimension: the history of Easter traditions as a figure of the unconscious

The Easter Bunny fascinates not only because of its role as an egg bringer, but also because of its psychological effect. As a figure between visibility and invisibility, it appeals to something unconscious in us that goes far beyond the custom. The rabbit – shy, fast, elusive – embodies an archetype of the hidden. It brings gifts without being seen, it works without controlling. That is precisely why it is so well suited as a projection screen for childlike desires and adult longings.

Believing in the Easter Bunny is a way of expressing the hope that there is good in the world that reaches us without being earned. That there is something that remains even if it cannot be held. This psychological dimension has a quiet but lasting effect: the Easter Bunny is a figure of comfort – a master of suggestion, not a proclaimer.

The search for eggs, the sense of wonder at the unexpected, the childlike trust in a symbolic order – all this activates archetypal experiences: the search for meaning, the joy of affection, the trust that there are things in life that are simply allowed to happen. In this sense, Easter bunny is more than just a nice custom. He is a silent ally of those inner parts that want to be seen without having to show themselves.

The Easter bunny can also play a role in therapeutic work: as an image for the unavailable, for that which cannot be deliberately created. The eggs he hides represent resources, answers, turning points – and the fact that meaning is not made, but found.

In this interpretation, the Easter Bunny becomes a symbol of trust in processes that elude our grasp. For the childlike sense of wonder that cannot be dispelled by cynicism. And for the knowledge that life is sometimes more surprising than any plan.

Conclusion: belief in the Easter Bunny – an invitation to reflect on Easter

Easter is not a static festival, but a vibrant space: between its origin in the Jewish-Christian calendar and pagan spring rituals, between the custom of painting eggs and the use of the Easter bunny as a psychological symbol, a web of stories, gestures and meanings emerges.

What begins as a child's belief – that the Easter Bunny lays and hides eggs – unfolds as a lifelong narrative. It combines the joy of spring light with the hope of a new beginning, the memory of loss with the possibility of change. It invites us to see the seemingly mundane – the egg, the rabbit, the fire – as carriers of inner truths.

In a world that is strongly focused on functionality, efficiency and control, Easter opens up a space where other things count: trust, faith, wonder at the unavailable. The story of the Easter Bunny, painting colourful eggs, searching in the garden or lighting a fire – all these are expressions of a deeper need for connection and meaning.

Whether you celebrate Easter religiously, in a secular way or simply spend time outside with your family, Easter offers you the opportunity to remember yourself – what moves you, touches you and accompanies you. Perhaps the egg you find is not just a painted symbol. Perhaps it is an invitation to look at life with wonder again – with open eyes and an open heart.

Frequently asked questions about the Easter Bunny and Easter

Glossary

• Easter Bunny: Symbolic figure of Easter, originating from a regional custom; is considered to bring eggs.

• Easter egg: Colourfully painted or dyed egg, traditionally a sign of life and fertility.

• Easter: Christian festival celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

• Ostara: Ostara is a supposed Germanic goddess of spring, popularised by Jacob Grimm in the 19th-century romantic period, but there is no historical evidence for her.

• Lent: The period of preparation for Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday.

• Easter fire: A symbolic fire of spring and light, often lit on Holy Saturday.

• Holy Saturday / Good Friday / Maundy Thursday: Central stations of the Holy Week in Christianity.

• Bilby: Australian animal that replaces the rabbit as an egg bringer in Australia.

Origin and symbolism

But where does the word Easter come from, how is the date determined and what is the story behind the rabbit and the eggs?

The date is based on the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring. The word ‘Easter’ was formerly associated with the alleged Germanic goddess of spring, Ostara – a theory based on Jacob Grimm, but historically unverifiable. Although the hare and the egg are considered symbols of fertility, this association is also based more on romanticising speculation from the 19th century than on concrete pagan sources. The Easter bunny is therefore not an ancient Germanic symbol, but a relatively recent invention of Central European customs.

Where does the myth of the Easter bunny come from?

The myth has been nourished by popular folklore, romantic historical constructions and, not least, by media and commercial dissemination. The idea of the Easter bunny as a symbol of fertility is based on cultural attributions, not on historical facts.

Why does a rabbit of all things bring Easter eggs?

The idea of a rabbit laying eggs originated in the context of Baroque piety and early modern pedagogy – as a mixture of religious symbolism, childlike fantasy and regional custom. The supposed ‘pagan origin’ was later erroneously added.

What does Jesus have to do with the Easter Bunny?

Directly: nothing. The Easter Bunny has no biblical origin. However, it adds a secular, child-friendly symbolic figure to the Easter festival.

Does the Easter Bunny really lay eggs?

Of course not. But the absurd idea that a rabbit lays eggs has become part of our cultural memory – as a fairytale story that adds an additional layer of fantasy and symbolism to Easter.