Easter Bunny Hunt: Fill & Download for Free

Easter’s associated with eggs because it’s the time you’re likeliest to die of famine, at least in pre-modern northern Europe.Early spring used to be called the “Hungry Gap” in England—it was the time when the food you’d stored for the winter was running low, and the new crops weren’t ready yet. (Bear in mind that before the coming of grocery stores and such, you depended entirely on the food you’d put away at harvest time. Going out to buy more was probably not an option.) In Orkney, this time was called the Lang Reid (probably from Old Norse langa-hríð, “long snowstorm; long spell of bad conditions”), and they used to say, “In Lentryne an’ the Lang Reid, / Naething bit water, kail, an’ bere breed.” (“In Lent and the Lang Reid, nothing but water, cabbage, and barley bread.”) Unless they’re kept under artificial lights, chickens stop or slow down laying during the dark days of winter. So Easter is roughly the time that the chickens will start laying again—and those eggs might be the first high-protein, high-fat food you’ve had for weeks. In the Rhineland they used to say “At Easter eat some hard-boiled eggs, then you’ll be healthy all year long” (Auf Ostern iss hart gesotene Eyer, dann bist du das gantze Jahr gesundt)—and that was pretty good nutritional advice.The Easter Bunny, at least in the US, is actually a Pennsylvania German custom that spread to the wider culture. Immigrating to Pennsylvania, mostly from the Rhineland Palatinate, the “Pennsylvania Dutch” told and still tell stories of the “Oschter Haws”. (Technically, the Oschter Haws is a hare, not a rabbit—but American English tends not to make the distinction consistently. Most of our native hare species are known as “jackrabbits.”)Hares and rabbits are symbols of fertility. The males do a lot of bouncing and running around, chasing each other, and even “boxing” each other during March, the breeding season. Females will also “box” males if they’re not receptive. (Hence the old saying “as mad as a March hare”, most familiar now from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). Soon after, hares mate and give birth, roughly at Easter time. Hares and rabbits can have several litters in a year, and a female can even get pregnant with a litter while she’s still pregnant with an older litter (called superfetation), so they’ve long been symbols of fertility. (Hence the saying “to f*** like a bunny.”)So the Easter Bunny and his eggs originated in the pre-modern agricultural cultures of northern Europe. I didn’t grow up hearing that the Easter Bunny laid the eggs; we always dyed our own eggs, and then my parents would hide them in the backyard for me and my sister to hunt. The Easter Bunny might bring us a chocolate egg for breakfast, but he didn’t lay eggs, chocolate or otherwise. I think I just had the impression that he got them from somewhere—probably the Kroger supermarket, like my mother did—and then brought them around for reasons best known to himself. (Actually, believing in the Easter Bunny was not really emphasized in my childhood. I think our attitude was “OK, it’s a nice story, and I get chocolate out of the deal, but other than that—meh, whatever.”)

Before modern electric lights, the chicken didn't lay egg in the Wintertime. When spring and light came, the first eggs would be laid.Easter is the old Spring celebration and to celebrate the new fertility of the world, eggs where eaten in honer to the goddess Eostre/Ostara or Freya. Rabbits is also connected to Eostre.

Hulk fighting Rhino dressed as Santa?Infinity Gauntlet Santa?Nah, has to be Santron coming to town.Pretty easy for dcLobo hunting down Santa Clause after the Easter Bunny put a bounty on him.