| Show the ne rabb rabbit a ind tk baer r 1 it E 1 j gra 0 how did ila the rabbit get lutc the neat of raster eggs ol 01 all the curious legends the centuries havo have gathered about the easter season none are more wore lk widely circulated than those having to A do with the rabbit and the eg agga egga castr Ea str eggs aro tire been all over the chrow tian flan world on easter bister sanday and wherever the eggs are there ie in the rabbit also 1 just where and haw ach such A e total abstainer from eggs such a ec learty non producer of egaas a rabbit got mixed up in a nest of tham the blog raphers of neither the hen nor the rabbit are ale to eay say but there he IS ik and there he persists in staying however hoever inconsequent irrelevant and immaterial his hiff presence may be myths of the easter egg alre more easily vastly accounted for the ancient E g y p fians pensions Per blans bauls greeks and romans baw in 41 the egg a an emblem of enmor bality in it life lay dormant an in thing a me moro object it had t the power to become a living being to the early christians the ess symbolized the resurrection because of this and also ti because cause eggs were looked upon as meat roman catholics of italy spain and france were formerly forbidden to eat during lent after the fasting was over eggs were the first meat to he lie eaten every easter eaker table lied eggs deed dy ed red tOi resent the blood of christ and piled plied I 1 in lo 10 pyramids qt various points of altage along the table before the eggs were ere broken they were blessed by the priest A special blessing for the easter eggs N was as given out by pope paul V 14 who ho sat satin in tho papal chair from 1605 fo 1021 1621 this blessing which a still used by many roman catholics la Is bless 0 lord 1 wo we beseech thee this thy gift of eggs that it t may become a wholesome ome sustenance 1 ance of thy falter ful servants eating it in thankfulness thee on the morn of the resurrection of our lord greek ore ek catholics believe that egge eggs laid on good friday have within them their own blessing and that ho hc who ho a eats them ae an his first food on easter sunday will be blessed throughout the at year ar they too bold hold that the egg Is symbolical of the resurrection but all of these eggs are the fruit of abe hen she that cackles over her product when every child believes that the rabbit Is responsible for the easter eggs germany for a long time claimed that she was the mother of the easter rabbit she said that it happened one ne time talt thu the children pf a very poor peasant had been told that they could have no eggs at easter time because bause their parents had no home horne and weri were too poor ioor to buy a hen the children grieved over this at first and then decided that they would stop grieving and pray they prayed for all euster eggs egg prayed earnestly and teri feri gently on the night before easter they made a nest tot the eggs they so confidently believed tho the morning would bring when they awoke the next morning they ran to the nest and there sure enough lay three conely ely eggs and sitting back of them very proud of himself was a bis big white rabbit tho the very rabbit that had laid the eggs but the easter rabbit Is far far older than this talc tale and the myths about the rabbit many of them associating the rabbit in one way or another with eggs are centuries older than tho the easter festival I 1 the moon festival in china comei cornea in the springtime and corresponds with I 1 easter its a great holiday nobody works everybody puts on hie his best beat clothes and goes out for n general coill fien tion tho the culmination of events comes on what hat Is our easter which as an old fashioned people will tell you youji cornea comes on tha first ant sunday after the first full ampon moon after the of march IC it Is on this night that the rabbit la to the moon lis U best seen been the ohi jn hi elai t i ne ak eniy hom age 10 lo to this rabbit their ancient religion them that ald alue I 1 mb r t th slave of bf genii who kept I 1 bria a everlastingly v e tingly busy pounding herb herbs an annta drugs to make inake the elixir of life alumn in a cassia tree to do the pounding und und if you ou will look nt at he lie moon 1 riv pv murtee sunday evening when the sky la in clear there youal see brer abbit ll pounding a away w a y and when hen you bec litou it you will ill eee see a mixture tat of taoist t bellef belief bost 1 african mythology southern negro folklore and early Christ christian itin legend the japanese have a legend doubtless passed over 0 to o them from india that tile gospel of the resurrection w us its first sent to the earth by the moon 9 god od used ased a rabbit as his messenger tho the roe given to the rabbit was wag this like llie as 6 1 I afe and rise to life agastri so shall you die and rise to life again the rabbit however hoever thinking in it would bo be algood joke on the people ct of the earth reversed this gospel t what he be said holthe people w N as like and live no more so shall ye all dip and be no more all ache e 11 the tile people took this gospel very sorrowfully which amused the rabbit and he be went back to the moon god and boasted of what he had done the god was so infuriated with his messenger that he threw a hatchet at him and split his lip wide vide open and that if 3 ou would ithe lileto lo 10 know Is N why hy the rabbits lip Is silt in certain parts darts of En england gAnd particularly at hallaton callaton Hal laton there was mas an old custom of celebrating easter monday with a bare hare pie scramble and bottle kicking this celebration begun began velh a procession lending leading to the house of the rector of the parish and consisting of two men abreast carrying sacks with cutup cut up pies inside three men abreast two carrying wooden bottle bottles filled with beer and the third a large dummy bottle that was to be lil hacked clied about one roan man carrying a ir pole on which was uns fastened a hure in a sitting posture and last of all a band at of music the band was followed by all the people of the parish who could walk the dummy bottlo was pvn killed into tho the neighboring karlh where it was burned or drowned after which bits of it were taken home as trophies troph lea by the people the custom fell into disuse about 1707 but other customs in which the hare figured w ere continued to a much later date one crue having to do with bunting of a hare on good friday to be eaten a ten on easter day the alternative being that he who does not eat a hare harer must eat a red herring at least one mythologist has tried to account for the baster easter rabbit in england by making mm him the creature of the anglican goddess whose name according to bede inas was given to the month of april which was called Ester grimm calls ibis god den ostara a divinity of the radiant dawn of kent e ia |
