The Original Easter “Bunny”

The following is excerpted from "The Hare Is the Original Easter 'Bunny'" by Stephen Colton (The Irish Times, March 26, 2016).


In cultures throughout the world, from America to the Far East, Africa to Europe, the hare is embedded in the folk myths of our ancestors. It is associated with the moon, the dawn, fertility, death, resurrection and fire.

In Celtic Britain and Ireland the hare was sacred. Boudicca, the British Celtic warrior queen, was said to have prayed to a hare goddess before going in to battle with the Romans and before planning which route her army should take, she released a hare from beneath her gown to show her which way to go.

There is also evidence of hares in ritual burial pits in Suffolk and Colchester. Eostre was the Celtic version of the Anglo-Saxon hare goddess Ostara who later gave her name to the festival of Easter and who was associated with resurrection during the turning of winter to spring. She was a ‘shape-shifter’ taking the form of a hare at each full moon. All hares were sacred to her and acted as messengers.

Hares were always respected in Ireland. Their meat was only eaten at the May festival of Beltane. In places a hare crossing the path was unlucky although the mammal was also linked to many folk cures with the hare’s foot carried as a charm and a way of preventing rheumatism. A tuft of fur from a hare was used to staunch bleeding and evil spirits were kept away from newborn babies whose faces were brushed with a hare’s foot.

As Christianity took hold across Europe, hares, viewed suspiciously as witches in animal form, were replaced by the rabbit, a less controversial symbol for Easter.

So, when you next see the bright eye of a hare, remember it carries with it millennia of mythology, folklore and tradition still celebrated across the world.


See also the previous posts:
• Easter Bunny or Eostre Hare?
• Symbol of Enlightenment
• Eostre: Goddess of New Life Beginnings
• The Goddess Ostara
• Remembering Eostre
• Celebrating Eostre
• Hare at Eastertide
• Easter Hare

Related Off-site Link:
The Pagan Roots of Easter – Heather McDougall (The Guardian, April 3, 2010).

Image: Photographer unknown.