MINNEAPOLIS — This weekend, Christians will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter is also known for eggs, bunnies and sweets galore.
But where do those traditions come from? Good Question.
How do you feel about the Easter bunny? It can be a loaded question, especially when it’s time to hop into its arms and pose for a pic.
“We haven’t done one in years, probably since they were really little,” Darwin Goetz said. “I love embarrassing them. So it made my day watching them get all red.”
But it’s tradition, just like eggs and Easter.
“Folks starting in the Middle Ages were usually breaking the letting fast with eggs,” Trish Sullivan Vanni with St. Catherine University said. “Because they weren’t allowed to eat eggs in lent.”
Sullivan Vanni says pagans viewed eggs as a symbol of spring.
“The egg became even more connected with Christianity as a teaching tool, and also as a little demonstration of the miracle of the resurrection, right, because it’s this little tomb and out of it bursts a new life,” Sullivan Vanni said.
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Why do some people dye the eggs?
“Dying eggs emerged in the middle ages in the Christian community, usually dyed red tied to a story about Mary of Magdalene,” Sullivan Vanni said.
Egg decorating is a very old practice. The oldest decorated egg, covered in etchings, was found by archeologists in Africa, dating back 60,000 years.
Egg hunting also has some Pagan roots.
“They believed in a magic hare. We now call that the Easter bunny,” Sullivan Vanni said. “The magical hare would lay colorful eggs for children who have been good.”
Commercialization happens with all sorts of celebrations. Take Peeps, for example, which hit the market in the 1950s.
Like them or not, some traditions have withstood the test of time.
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