WHY THE EGGS, RABBITS?

Apr 13, 2006

Just what do rabbits have to do with eggs, buns and chocolate? Any good guess? yes, all are ideal gifts for Easter.

By Titus Serunjogi

Just what do rabbits have to do with eggs, buns and chocolate? Any good guess? yes, all are ideal gifts for Easter. Go to any supermarket now and you will be surprised at the huge array of long-eared bunnies and coloured eggs crammed in the shelves. It happens every time we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus.

But who started all these Easter traditions? Not the Bible, certainly. The early Christians did in an effort to win over pagan tribesmen who were still worshipping small gods. So, Easter was adjusted to coincide with pagan bashes commemorating the harvesting of food crops.

Indeed Easter, as we know it today, was being celebrated thousands of years before Gabriel brought the good news to the Virgin Mary.

Ori Kahana, a Jewish beautician on Buganda Road, says Easter originally coincided with the Paschal or Passover. Israelites still celebrate this, but without the cross-buns, rabbits and eggs.

“All we have is unleavened bread and wine, to commemorate the time when our forefathers had to rush out of Egypt and did not have time to bake their bread well,” that was after the angel of death had killed all the firstborn sons in Egypt, remember?

The Jews had killed God’s firstborn at just about the same time. But as the Romans persecuted more and more Jews, the Christians thought they could survive by taking on Roman customs. So Sabbath was pushed to Sunday, the day when Romans worshipped their sun god, Attis. And instead of Pascha, they took on Easter, which was held on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the equinox.

Just about this time, old Babylonians were also exchanging coloured eggs, in honour of their Goddess, Ishtar (Ishtar...Easter, what’s the difference?). The Egyptians, on the other hand, put the eggs in their tombs; the Greeks just placed them on top of graves. But today, Easter eggs are coloured red to symbolise the blood of Christ.

Ishtar was the fertility goddess and the rabbit came to be associated with her. Why not? Rabbits can give birth to a whooping 42 offspring at once! One legend has it that Ishtar, also a goddess of fertility and lust, went to the underworld to rescue her dead brother Tammuz. The latter, like Jesus who came after him, was three days and three nights in the grave.

All rites, including the baking of cross buns by Babylonian women were rooted in pagan festivals of life and death; planting and harvesting of food crops.
The German legend, however, is more explicit. The goddess Eostre, so the story goes, found a bird whose wings had been frozen by the winter snow.

She felt pity for it and instead changed it into a rabbit. But wait, not the ordinary kind of rabbit, this one could lay eggs too! Only once a year, on the first full moon after the March equinox.

This coincided with the time when the pagans celebrated their Ostre. This is the Easter we inherit today. Prior to the German Ostre, children were told that they would get coloured eggs from bunny, just as we were told as kids that a mouse would take our teeth and leave some money in its place.

So, Christians were forbidden to eat eggs during lent, until the glorious feast of Easter Sunday. Today, we have Easter eggs made out of candy. And some hotels will be hosting massive egg-hunts for children. Sheraton Hotel will host egg hunts on Sunday. Children will go around the gardens trying to find the hidden easter eggs.

It does not matter much anyway that Easter is rooted in pagan rituals. Rev. Dr. Medard Rugyendo, the assistant chaplain for St.Luke’s church Mulago, says, “With or without eggs, Jesus died on the cross for our sins and like he rose again from the grave, we too shall. That is all that matters. Easter serves to remind us of the need for renewal in our lives.” Happy Easter everybody.

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