#easter stork

[kuiperoid]

ReligionForBreakfast points out that linking the Easter Bunny to an alleged Pagan goddess named Eostre falls apart under scrutiny for reasons including that the tradition was way newer than that, "Easter" is just the English word for the holiday, and the fact that the critter in question is not always a rabbit (there are Easter Foxes and Storks, for example). There are many rabbit/hare-related traditions in mythologies around the world, but the Anglo Saxon folk deity was not even one of them outside of Jacob Grimm's basless speculations and then some other Protestants centuries after she would have even been recognized. I do like that he, being a religious studies PhD, also points out that the supposed Christian roots sometimes pointed out, what with the association with the Virgin Mary and rabbits in medieval art, is also likely not the source of the Easter Bunny either because there's quite a leap (like the leaps rabbits make!) from "painting Jesus's mom with bunnies" to "bunnies pass out eggs on this holiday he's associated with."

[maimoncat]

Frohe Ostern, euch allen! Hier noch ein Osterbild vom letzten Jahr!  Heutzutage bringt nur der Hase zu Ostern die Eier, aber noch vor Hundert Jahren erzählte man je nach Region von einem anderen Ostertier. Am häufigsten kam der Fuchs, vor allem in Westfalen, in der Schweiz der Kuckuck und in Thüringen der Storch. Sonst gab es auch den Osterhahn, vor allem im Alpenraum und in Schweden verbreitet, den Enterich in Nordschleswig, die Lerche in der Umgebung von Novy Jičin und die Kaninchennasenbeutler aus Austrtalien.

Buona Pasqua a tutti! Eccovi un pezzo della Pasqua scorsa: Al giorno d’oggi le uova le porta solo il coniglietto a Pasqua, ma fino a cent’anni fa dipendeva ancora dalla regione quale animale pasquale elargiva questi doni. Quello più diffuso era la volpe, che si trovava soprattutto in Vestfalia,poi c’erano il cuculo in Svizzera e la cicogna in Turingia. Sennò esistevano anche il gallo e la gallina di Pasqua, specie in’area apina e in Svezia, il papero in Nordschleswig, l’allodola nei dintorni di Novy Jičin e il Billby dell’Australia

Happy Easter, everybody! Here's a nice piece from last years festivities! Nowadays only the bunny brings the eastereggs, but just a hundred years ago which animal brought these gifts depended on the place. The most common one was the fox, especially in Westphalia, in Switzerland there was the cuckoo bird and in Thuringia the stork. Not pictured are the Easter-rooster and -hen from the alps and Sweden, the duck from North-Schleswig, the lark from around Novy Jičin and the australian easterbillby.