# I think Cecil has it wrong on the easter bunny .... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 9, 2004, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262 "2004-07-09T09:41:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Galanthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Galanthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galanthus)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/1 "2004-07-09T09:41:19Z")
Sorry Cecil I could be wrong but … My understanding is it comes from the sacred animal of Aostre/Eostra ( the germanic spring goddess who gave her name to Easter ) who’s sacred symbols where an egg and a hare. Over the years said hare has been corrupted to a bunny. Thanks to **Tusculan** who gave me this link [Webster - Easter bunny](http://www.websters-dictionary-online.org/definition/english/Ea/Easter+bunny.html) and told me that in the Netherlands it is the Paashaas (literally, Easter Hare), not a bunny. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/2 "2004-07-09T09:52:00Z")
Hmmm…Since I notice the last question went unanswered in Cecil’s reply, I’m going to add the following comments : No, we usually don’t have chocolate easter bunnies in Paris. More commonly chocolate poultry (in this case the link with eggs is obvious) or sometimes chocolate easter fishes. Anyway, we’re rational people over here, and not ignorant enough to believe that bunnies lay eggs. Instead, eggs are dropped by flying bells (usually depicted with angel-like wings on the side). So we’d rather eat chocolate bells (like [this one](http://www.albert-chocolatier.com/france_paques-cloche.htm) than these poor cute bunnies. ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/3 "2004-07-09T13:07:29Z")
> [@Galanthus](#): > > Over the years said hare has been corrupted to a bunny. > > Thanks to **Tusculan** who gave me this link And, bunnies are cuter and more marketable as an image. Note the idea is a symbol of fertility, and thus the young of the species represents that best. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/4 "2004-07-09T13:56:51Z")
> [@Galanthus](#): > > Sorry Cecil I could be wrong but … > > My understanding is it comes from the sacred animal of Aostre/Eostra ( the germanic spring goddess who gave her name to Easter ) who’s sacred symbols where an egg and a hare. > > Over the years said hare has been corrupted to a bunny. I think he said all this (though he didn’t name the goddess) in [his column](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_009.html) … > [@Cecil](#): > > Indeed, in the eighth century, the Venerable Bede speculated that the word “Easter” was originally the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring/dawn/fertility (although this has been disputed) … Incidentally, the usual symbol in Europe, where this all got started, is actually the hare. The relatively hare-starved U.S. was obliged to substitute the smaller but cuter bunny rabbit. What did you think Cecil got wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Galanthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Galanthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galanthus)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/5 "2004-07-09T14:15:21Z")
> [@SCSimmons](#): > > What did you think Cecil got wrong? Well, uumm, he didn’t actually say where the bunny comes from. Though he mentioned the spring goddess he didn’t actually point out that a hare was her symbol. Thus the connection between easter and bunnies … ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/6 "2004-07-09T14:50:05Z")
> [@Galanthus](#): > > My understanding is it comes from the sacred animal of Aostre/Eostra ( the germanic spring goddess who gave her name to Easter ) who’s sacred symbols where an egg and a hare. The problem with this is that there is only one piece of direct evidence that anyone ever believed in a goddess called Eostre (or whatever) and that is the comment by Bede in his _De Temporum Ratione_. All he says is that the Anglo-Saxons in England had formerly called their equivalent of April ‘Eosturmonath’ and that this had been named after a goddess called ‘Eostre’. And that’s it. No mention of what she was the goddess of or anything about hares or eggs. The hare association with her only came much later when more modern historians suggested that she was the goddess of the spring and/or fertility and therefore assumed that she was linked to that other symbol of the spring and/or fertility, the hare. But that’s just speculation. There is no actual evidence for a connection. Moreover, as Cecil mentions, some historians dispute Bede’s Easter=Eostre theory. They think that Bede was just bullshitting. It doesn’t help that he was probably wrong about the origins of some of the other month-names as well. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/7 "2004-07-09T17:37:03Z")
The first question to ask is whether the bunny is uniquely English, which I don’t see addressed in the column. Even if there was a goddess Eostre, and even if the word “Easter” does derive from that name, the name “Easter” occurs _only_ in English. Every other language calls it some variation of “Passover”. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/8 "2004-07-09T17:47:35Z")
The first question to ask is whether the bunny is uniquely English, which I don’t see addressed in the column. Even if there was a goddess Eostre, and even if the word “Easter” does derive from that name, the name “Easter” occurs _only_ in English. Every other language calls it some variation of “Passover”. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/9 "2004-07-09T17:59:20Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Anyway, we’re rational people over here, and not ignorant enough to believe that bunnies lay eggs. Instead, eggs are dropped by flying bells (usually depicted with angel-like wings on the side). So we’d rather eat chocolate bells (like [this one](http://www.albert-chocolatier.com/france_paques-cloche.htm) than these poor cute bunnies. There’s a funny David Sederis story in “Me Talk Pretty Someday” about cross cultural Easter/Bunny/Bell confusion. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/10 "2004-07-09T18:40:48Z")
> [@John W. Kennedy](#): > > Even if there was a goddess Eostre, and even if the word “Easter” does derive from that name, the name “Easter” occurs _only_ in English. Every other language calls it some variation of “Passover”. In German it is _Ostern_ and _Ostara_ or _Austara_ have been suggested as “German” variants of Eostra, but a connection throughout the Germanic culture is not that surprising. My three books on germanic mythology are split on the issue: [ul] [li]Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie (first edition 1835) “not unlikely”, overall positive[/li][li]Herrmann: Deutsche Mythologie (1898) “no reason to doubt existence”[/li][li]Golther: Germanische Mythologie (1895) “hardly credible”, explicit reference to _Grimm_[/li][/ul] All three give Bede as the only source for the goddess Eostra. ---
**Author:** ![Ronbo4444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@Ronbo4444](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronbo4444)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/11 "2004-07-11T19:39:05Z")
My favorite explaination for this was… ANCIENT SAXONS: Eostre was the Saxon version of the Germanic lunar goddess Ostara. She gave her name to the Christian Easter and to the female hormone estrogen. Her feast day was held on the full moon following the vernal equinox – almost the identical calculation as for the Christian Easter in the west. One delightful legend associated with Eostre was that she found an injured bird on the ground one winter. To save its life, she transformed it into a hare. But “the transformation was not a complete one. The bird took the appearance of a hare but retained the ability to lay eggs. …the hare would decorate these eggs and leave them as gifts to Eostre.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/12 "2004-07-11T23:32:43Z")
> [@Ronbo4444](#): > > My favorite explaination for this was… > > ANCIENT SAXONS: Eostre was the Saxon version of the Germanic lunar goddess Ostara. She gave her name to the Christian Easter and to the female hormone estrogen. Her feast day was held on the full moon following the vernal equinox – almost the identical calculation as for the Christian Easter in the west. One delightful legend associated with Eostre was that she found an injured bird on the ground one winter. To save its life, she transformed it into a hare. But “the transformation was not a complete one. The bird took the appearance of a hare but retained the ability to lay eggs. …the hare would decorate these eggs and leave them as gifts to Eostre.” Since the statement about “estrogen” is certainly false (and can be checked with only a trivial effort), I cannot take any of this at face value. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/13 "2004-07-12T00:12:58Z")
Here’s the column [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_009.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_009.html) ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/14 "2004-07-12T10:20:20Z")
> [@kellner](#): > > In German it is _Ostern_ and _Ostara_ or _Austara_ have been suggested as “German” variants of Eostra, but a connection throughout the Germanic culture is not that surprising. > My three books on germanic mythology are split on the issue: > [ul] > [li]Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie (first edition 1835) “not unlikely”, overall positive[/li][li]Herrmann: Deutsche Mythologie (1898) “no reason to doubt existence”[/li][li]Golther: Germanische Mythologie (1895) “hardly credible”, explicit reference to _Grimm_[/li][/ul] > All three give Bede as the only source for the goddess Eostra. And the [Goethe Institut](http://www.goethe.de/kug/ges/rel/thm/en101411.htm) comes down on the side of the sceptics. > [@](#): > > The origins of the Christian Easter festival date back to the second century, when it evolved following the Jewish Pesach. This root is still apparent today, for in many languages, the name for Easter comes from the Hebrew word Pesach. In Italian, Easter is called “pasqua”, in French, it is “pâques”, in Russian “paskha”, in Swedish “påskdagen” and in Icelandic, “páskar”. > > Of course, the German word “Ostern” and the English word “Easter” do not fit in with this etymology: instead, they have an Old High German root. At one time, it was believed that the word “Easter” derived from the name of a Norse goddess of light, Eostre. Indeed, this interpretation is often still put forward today. However, academics dispute that this goddess was ever revered by the Germanic tribes. Instead, they assume that the word “Ostern” is derived from the Old German word “eastron”, meaning “dawn”. ---
**Author:** ![jsleek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8dc957/32.png) [@jsleek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsleek)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/15 "2004-07-13T15:43:00Z")
Astarte. Pretty close to Easter… [http://www.geocities.com/Baja/Canyon/3778/Mythmyst/Astarte.htm](http://www.geocities.com/Baja/Canyon/3778/Mythmyst/Astarte.htm) ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/16 "2004-07-13T17:35:51Z")
> [@jsleek](#): > > Astarte. Pretty close to Easter… But what connection is there with Western Germanic culture? You can’t just jump over thousands of miles and thousands of years like that on the basis of three letters. ---
**Author:** ![jsleek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8dc957/32.png) [@jsleek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsleek)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/17 "2004-07-13T21:09:02Z")
Acts 12:4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in a prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after **Easter** to bring him forth to the people. I wasn’t trying to connect to anything German. I had understood the word was from the Bible. I’ve give you the bunnies may be German. or maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/18 "2004-07-13T21:37:34Z")
> [@jsleek](#): > > Acts 12:4 > And when he had apprehended him, he put him in a prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after **Easter** to bring him forth to the people. > I wasn’t trying to connect to anything German. I had understood the word was from the Bible. I’ve give you the bunnies may be German. or maybe not. (Sigh!) 12:4 ὃν καὶ πιάσας ἔθετο εἰς φυλακήν, 12:4 on kai piasas etheto eis phulakên, παραδοὺς τέσσαρσιν τετραδίοις στρατιωτῶν φυλάσσειν αὐτόν, paradous tessarsin tetradiois stratiôtôn phulassein auton, βουλόµενος µετὰ τὸ **πάσχα** ἀναγαγεῖν αὐτὸν τῷ λαῷ. boulomenos meta to **pascha** anagagein auton tô laô. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/19 "2004-07-14T00:37:22Z")
That’s Greek to me! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262/20 "2004-07-14T02:14:44Z")
What about Ishtar, the sex/fertility/something or other goddess of the Babylonians? Or Ashtera, another one of those fun Canaanite deities? (The Canaanites were really into sacred prostitution and human sacrifices for one reason or another.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-cecil-has-it-wrong-on-the-easter-bunny/254262.md?page=2)