Picture this: a marketing employee stands in front of a team of Disney executives. He nervously prepares to pitch his latest idea: an anthropomorphic rabbit, who lays eggs, sneaks into children’s backyards to hide the eggs he lays, and also inexplicably has some connection to chocolate. The executives laugh in his face, telling the poor man that nobody will watch a movie with such a ridiculous premise.
For some reason, the American population not only accepts this narrative during the entire month of April, they downright eat it up.
According to History, the easter bunny grew popular when German immigrants brought the tradition to Pennsylvania in the 1700’s. The belief originated from a European pagan festival called Eoestre (sound familiar?). The legend was that a rabbit came to children’s houses and gave them brightly colored eggs to celebrate the end of Lent, a forty day period of fasting. The root of the tradition, I love. It’s the commercialization of the seemingly traditional rabbit that irks me. Rabbit-symbol of fertility. Checks out. Eggs-symbol of fertility and birth. Checks out. Bright colors? Sure, why not? A magical colorful egg-laying rabbit who wears human clothes and hides baskets of his own eggs and chocolate around your house? This is where I get confused.
For some reason, most holidays are times to celebrate the usually illegal practice of breaking and entering. Santa Claus, Saint Patrick’s Day leprechauns, even the tooth fairy gets in on the felony. Our anthropomorphic bunny is just one more criminal in the lineup. However, stepping back and looking at other countries’ traditions makes me realize a gigantic rabbit who breaks into our houses maybe isn’t that weird. Take Paris, where instead of a bunny, a giant bell flies in from Rome and scatters chocolate on children’s lawns. Maybe Finland’s traditions interest you, where little children dress up as witches and carry willow branches door to door. If you really hate the Easter Bunny, stop by New Zealand. The “Great Bunny Hunt” is a time-honored tradition, which I shall not be elaborating on out of respect for our own spring-related friend.
All in all, I do enjoy the wackiness of the Easter commercialization. Shops selling ridiculous paraphernalia of a rabbit dressed in people’s clothes, children eagerly hunting for eggs in my neighborhood and even those nasty marshmallow Peeps are all highlights of the month. Celebrating this holiday teaches me to let loose and have fun and to laugh at the wonder and humor of the world around me.
But really? Hunting bunnies? Now that’s messed up.
Seventh grader Ella Colarte Delgado celebrates Easter with bunny-shaped pancakes, further feeding into the rabbits appearance on this holiday. (Photo/Emma Delgado)
