What's with the Easter Bunny?

One of the kids asked why we have the Easter Bunny?  I didn't have a good answer so I did some research.

Below is from the website www.allaboutjesuschrist.org:

The meaning of Easter is Jesus Christ's victory over death. His resurrection symbolizes the eternal life that is granted to all who believe in Him. The meaning of Easter also symbolizes the complete verification of all that Jesus preached and taught during His three-year ministry. If He had not risen from the dead, if He had merely died and not been resurrected, He would have been considered just another teacher or Rabbi. However, His resurrection changed all that and gave final and irrefutable proof that He was really the Son of God and that He had conquered death once and for all. 

However, Easter did not always symbolize Christ's resurrection from the dead and the meaning of Easter was quite different than what Christians celebrate today. The feast day of Easter was originally a pagan celebration of renewal and rebirth. Celebrated in the early spring, it honored the pagan Saxon goddess Eastre. When the early missionaries converted the Saxons to Christianity, the holiday, since it fell around the same time as the traditional memorial of Christ's resurrection from the dead, was merged with the pagan celebration, and became know as Easter. The meaning of Easter was also changed to reflect its new Christian orientation.

So in actual fact Christian Easter is the date of a pagan celebration which explains quite a lot.  What the website fails to tell you is that the Goddess Eastre (said "Ishter") was the goddess of fertility.  Hence the Bunny cause we all know what Rabbits are like when it comes to fertility!   So when you and the kids are running around collecting eggs from the Easter Bunny just remember that you are celebrating a pagan god.

It would seem that a number of our key dates in the Christian calendar are in actual fact pagan religious dates e.g., Christmas day is the shortest day of winter for sun worshipers where, in the northern hemisphere the sun briefly stops going lower in the sky and remains at about the same height for three days - three wise men - and then starts rising again as spring starts.  This is why Jesus is always depicted with a crown of thorns - the sun is behind his head.  

Its all very interesting when you look into the actual origins of these rituals and dates.