What exactly is the point of a bunny and choc.olate eggs?
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The early Catholic church had an interesting solution regarding supplanting religions and beliefs native to lands they were expanding into. Instead of simply trying to wipe out those beliefs, the church looked for ways to mesh them into Catholicism. As far as the rabbit, there isn't a lot of evidence that survives to fully explain how the bunny got intertwined with Easter, but there some circumstantial evidence that survives. Pagan religions celebrated the spring equinox and the symbol of that celebration was the rabbit. Rabbits, along with eggs, were considered symbolic of fertility and spring was seen as time of fertility for the earth. So, it's most likely that the Catholic church incorporated those symbols into early Christianity for Easter, to make it more acceptable to others.
As far as choc.olate goes, there's even less evidence (besides the fact that it makes candy companies a lot of money,) however, since Easter is preceeded by Lent, 40 days that Catholics historically fast and pray in preparation for Easter, it could be that choc.olate and other sweets were used by parents as a reward for their children going through 40 days of a very meager diet. Historically, fasting didn't mean you starved yourself, it meant that you were going to survive on the bear minimum of necessities (like food,) and human contact so you could concentrate on prayer and devotion.
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Topic: Easter (Read 1228 times)
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