Easter Bunny
In custom , the Easter bunny is an imagined bunny who paints eggs at Easter and hides them in the garden. The children are looking for the Easter eggs on the morning of Easter Sunday .
The motif of the Easter bunny has recently spread in the popular culture of the Easter festival through its commercial use and largely supplanted earlier bearers of the Easter egg. In some parts of Switzerland , such as the Emmental , the cuckoo was still the egg supplier in the 19th century, in parts of Westphalia it was the Easter fox , in Thuringia the stork and in Bohemia the rooster brought the eggs for Easter. There was also the idea that the church bells that fly to Rome on Maundy Thursday bring the Easter eggs with them when they return from there.
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As far as is known, the Easter Bunny is mentioned for the first time in the dissertation of the Frankfurt doctor Johannes Richier, who received his doctorate from the respected Heidelberg medical professor Georg Franck von Franckenau in 1682 with the treatise "De ovis paschalibus - von Oster-Eyern". The son of pastor Jean Richier , who fled France for reasons of faith, describes a custom in Upper Germany , the Palatinate , Alsace and neighboring areas as well as Westphalia, according to which an Easter bunny lays the eggs ( ova excludere ) and hides them in gardens in the grass, bushes, etc., where they would be eagerly sought by children with laughter and for the pleasure of adults ( cum risu et iucunditate seniorum ). The fact that the Easter Bunny hides the eggs is what he calls "a fable that one binds to simple-minded people and children" ( fabula, que simplicioribus et infantibus imponunt ).
According to cultural science, the reason for the strong upswing that the Easter bunny belief finally took in the 19th century is to be found in the industrial production of cheap beet sugar, which made the production of affordable chocolate bunnies and eggs possible in the first place.
The connection of the Christian Easter with the egg as a symbol is known for various European countries from the Middle Ages at the latest, possibly earlier. Since Ambrosius there has also been an older interpretation of the hare as a resurrection symbol. The diverse Christian rabbit symbolism found its expression in many pictorial works in the Middle Ages, see rabbits in art . The connection of the hare with Easter egg consumption is still unclear, even if the fertility of the hare in itself has a close connection with spring. The following hypotheses are often cited:
- Some early painted Easter eggs show the three-rabbit picture - a representation of three rabbits with only three ears in total, but because of the "double use" of ears each rabbit has two ears; this is a well-known symbol for the trinity today (the original meaning is unclear). Possibly one could have come from this representation on the hare as egg supplier.
- At one point in the Bible, Ps 104.18 EU , older translations speak of "rabbits". This was due to the Latin translation of Proverbs 30:26 EU , in Jerome , the Hebrew "Shaphan" ( Hyrax translated) with "lepusculus" (Bunny). Since late antiquity, this place has been interpreted as a symbol for the weak person (rabbit) who seeks refuge in the rock (Christ). This interpretation established the rabbit symbolism in Christian iconography .
Believe in the Easter Bunny
It is widely considered harmless to teach young children that the Easter Bunny brings eggs and sweets to Easter. According to psychologists, this illusion stimulates the imagination and supports cognitive development. However, critical questions and doubts of the children should be supported so that the belief in the rabbit eventually disappears by itself through exchanges with other children.
Discussion about supposed renaming
A Karstadt -Bon from March 2018, on which a “traditional bunny” (from Lindt ) was booked instead of an Easter bunny , caused outrage on social networks. The talk was of a supposed self-abandonment by Germany and a loss of identity. The AFD -Politiker Jörg Meuthen wrote about a "gesture of submission"; the country is "shaped Christian, not Islamic ". A Rewe voucher of the same name also appeared. In reality, the term “traditional bunny” is a term used in an inventory control system , a logistical system that companies use to organize purchases and sales as well as reorders. In view of the large number of different Easter bunnies in supermarkets, the system needs different names. The designation Easter bunny as such is unaffected. Shortly afterwards it became known that the AfD had sold Easter bunnies made of chocolate in its advertising mail order in 2017, but had not dubbed them as Easter bunnies but as “chocolate bunnies”. Only after the "traditional bunny" discussion were these renamed "chocolate bunnies".
Easter bunny international
German-speaking emigrants also spread the Easter Bunny outside of Europe. In the USA in particular, it has gained some popularity. In English, the term "Easter Bunny" prevails over the literal translation "Easter Hare", so that the figure is often understood as a rabbit.
In Australia , the "Easter Bunny" has been accompanied by an "Easter Bilby" since the 1970s. The aim is to draw attention to the animal species, the large rabbit- nose cone ("Bilby") , which is threatened not least by the spread of European rabbits, and to raise funds for a conservation fund through the sale of chocolate bilbies.
Easter Bunny Post Office
In Germany, like the Christmas post office at Christmas time , there are also three places at Easter where letters to the Easter Bunny are answered if they are sent to one of the following addresses in good time:
| Easter post office / branch | state | address | operator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ostereistedt | Lower Saxony | Hanni Hase Am Waldrand 12 27404 Ostereistedt |
Selsingen municipality |
| Eibau | Saxony | Olli Osterhase Oberlausitzer Osterhasenpostamt OT Eibau Hauptstrasse 214a 02739 Kottmar |
KiEZ Querxenland gGmbH, Seifhennersdorf , Oberlausitz Sponsor: Querxenland Seifhennersdorf e. V. |
| Osterhausen | Saxony-Anhalt | Osterhase Siedlungsstraße 2 06295 Osterhausen |
Daycare Daisy with financial support from the town of Eisleben |
In Munich there was a museum about Easter bunnies at the Center for Extraordinary Museums until it was closed in 2005.
Easter bunny in media
The films about Easter bunnies include Maxwell, the brave Easter Bunny (1996). The modern version of the Easter bunny was featured in the 2011 film Hop - Easter Bunny or Superstar? (2011) prepared. Many children's songs include the Easter bunny in the text, such as "Poke, the little Easter bunny".
literature
- Max Höfler: Easter biscuits. A comparative study of the Gebildbrote at Easter time (magazine for Austrian folklore. Supplement-Heft IV for the 12th year 1906). Publishing house of the Association for Austrian Folklore, Vienna 1906.
- Hugo Hepding: Easter eggs and Easter bunny. In: Hessian sheets for folklore . Volume XXIV. 1927, pp. 127-141.
- Albert Becker: Easter egg and Easter bunny. About the customs of the German Easter period. Eugen Diederichs, Jena 1937.
- Gustav Schmidt (Hrsg.): Upper Franconian customs in old and new times. Bayerische Verlags-Anstalt, Bayreuth 1994, ISBN 3-87052-994-6 . In it: Easter customs, pp. 202–222.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gottlieb Jakob Kuhn : Folksongs. 2nd ed. Bern 1819, p. 161 ( online at Google Books ).
- ↑ Easter bunny . In: Concise Dictionary of German Superstition , Vol. 6, Sp. 1329
- ↑ Legends, customs and fairy tales from Westphalia and some others, especially the neighboring areas of northern Germany. Part 2. Ed. By Adalbert Kuhn. Leipzig 1859, p. 143 ( online at Google Books ).
- ↑ Mentioned as such on December 15, 1684 by Achilles Augustus von Lersner : Chronica of the well-known free imperial, electoral and trading town of Franckfurth am Mayn. Part 2, Book 2. Frankfurt am Main. 1734, p. 63 ( online at Google Books ).
- ^ Johannes Richier: Disputatione ordinaria disquirens de ovis paschalibus / von Oster-Eyern . In: Satyrae Medicae . No. XVIII . Heidelberg 1682, p. 6 ( online at Europeana ).
- ↑ Jean (= Johannes) Richier was pastor of the Église réformée française de Francfort from March 1652 until his death in 1695 , s. Troisième jubilé séculaire de la fondation de l'Église Réformée Française de Francfort s / M. Frankfurt am Main 1854, p. 50 u. 54 ( online at Google Books ). The dissertation of his son of the same name is dedicated to him ( D [omi] n [o] Joh [anni] Richier, ecclesiae reformatae Gallicae Francofurtensis pastori ) (back of the title page).
- ^ Helga Maria Wolf: Austrian festivals and customs in the annual cycle. St. Pölten 2003 ISBN 978-3853262252 , p. 77.
- ↑ egg . In: Lexicon of Christian Iconography (LCI). Freiburg im Breisgau 1970, ISBN 3-451-21806-2 , volume 1
- ↑ In: Lexicon of Christian Iconography (LCI). Freiburg im Breisgau 1970, ISBN 3-451-21806-2 , Volume 2, Sp. 221.
- ↑ in newer editions is correctly translated as "Klippdachs"
- ↑ Translation is also traced back to the older Greek translations in which the word hare is said to have been used. Jerome should have understood enough Hebrew to understand the problem; The decisive factor - similar to Luther's later translation - was probably the fact that there are no rock hyraxes north of the Mediterranean and the translators wanted to get by with familiar terms.
- ↑ Jacqueline Woolley, University of Texas Austin , Ute Bayen, University of Düsseldorf and Gerd Lehmkuhl , University Hospital Cologne in the article Faith in the Easter Bunny is good for the child in Die Welt online on March 29, 2012, accessed on March 31, 2014
- ↑ David Schraven: No - the Easter bunny is not being renamed the “traditional bunny” as a self-abandonment of our culture. correctiv.org, March 30, 2018
- ↑ Information about the Osterbilby (English)
- ↑ "Hanni Hase" website
- ↑ "Osterhase Olli" , accessed on April 21, 2019.
- ↑ Easter Bunny Post Office opened. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (mz-web.de), March 5, 2014
- ↑ Reference to the Osterpost branch in Osterhausen at eisleben.eu
- ^ Lyrics by Rolf Zuckowski
