So, What The Heck Do Rabbits Have To Do With Easter Anyway?

The Easter Bunny. Let’s face it, we love him. He’s cute and fuzzy what’s not to like? He brings chocolate! Just that fact alone makes him a winner in my book. There are a few things that still confuse me about our furry little friend though. Where the heck is he getting all those eggs? Does he own a factory farm? Did he ink a deal with a major supermarket chain? It’s all a little curious and all we got out of his representatives was no comment. A little research is in order so, let’s check out the Holiday called Easter.

What Is Easter

Well, Easter is one of the holiest days of the year for Christians around the world. The intention of the holiday is to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is one of the chief tenets of the Christian faith. Unlike Christmas or St. Patrick’s Day Easter doesn’t have a fixed date. It changes year to year. I usually just google it but there is a way to determine it. It’s actual date depends on the phase of the moon, The Gregorian calendar, and the Spring Equinox. Confused? So am I. I still don’t get it and as a child I could be found in a new suit sitting in a church pew every Easter Sunday. However, you can always Google how they determine the day. It’s very interesting but we didn’t want this article to get too long. You get the picture. 

I Still Don’t The Rabbits And The Eggs

Well, the Christian Church is very smart. In the early days when Christianity was still spreading they employed a brilliant technique. If you can’t beat them, join them. So, say they came into an area and the people there practiced a pagan religion instead of forcing them to give up their symbols and rituals they just kind of Christianized them. For instance many of the Christmas stories and rituals that we enjoy today have pagan roots. The celebration of the winter solstice is kind of our modern Christmas’s blueprint. The Roman’s had a feast called Saturnalia that was held around the same time of year that we celebrate Christmas. The celebration included lighting candles and giving gifts, and decorating your house. Sound familiar? So, when the Roman’s adopted Christianity all that stuff kind of stuck around. 

Now, let’s take that model and apply it to Easter. Let’s take a trip back to 13th century Germany before they even heard about Christianity. One of the Goddesses they worshipped was called Eostra. She was the Goddess of Spring and fertility. Guess what her symbol was. You guessed it, a rabbit. Why? Because of the little critters robust reproductive rate. See where we’re going here? Here come Peter Cottontail! Now get this, eggs were a symbol of new life and rebirth. It’s all coming together, isn’t it? So, mix that all together and in the 15 to 1600’s you get the story of a magical rabbit laying eggs and hiding them that get’s pretty popular. Now, when immigrants migrate they bring their stories and traditions with them and in the 1700’s that’s just what the German people did when the came to America. Bingo-Bango the Easter Bunny is hopping his way through Pennsylvania and into our hearts. Soon you’ve got baskets and people painting eggs and making them out of chocolate. Introduce Christianity into the story and a couple of hundred years later Easter becomes what it is today. I’m simplifying here but this morning show produced a great segment on the whole thing below.

Our Take

Inspired by the stories and numerous legends of our favorite egg laying hare, our studio decided to put together our take on this holiday phenomenon. First we need to nail down the design. I took pencil to paper and began to sketch. I wanted something a bit different but with the elements that you would expect from an easter themed character. Ultimately, I decided to put some clothes on him. I couldn’t have the little bugger running around naked hiding eggs, could I? A shirt and collar seemed appropriate. Although, for the tie I decided to use a piece of colorful ribbon. I thought that would be a nice holiday touch. Next up, for a little formality I gave him a vest. Just to spice him up a bit. After all the whole point of our Easter Collection was to show him at work. I made it a nice bright green of freshly cut Spring grass.

Now here’s where it gets a little weird. I didn’t wand to give him sleeves but I did want to give him cuffs. I know, I know, What use are cuffs without sleeves? It just looked right. I wanted to keep him an animal. I know he’s doing a lot of human stuff but somehow full sleeves just looked wrong to me. Here’s my thinking. When pet owners dress up their pets usually the costumes for them are kind of pieces. A hat here, maybe a jacket. Some get kind of ridiculous with a whole outfits but the pets usually l mortified and uncomfortable. The ones that are strategically designed to let the pet move freely always appealed to me more. So, I kind of kept that in my head as I was putting this design together

Anyway, this what I came up with and I like him!

I’m pretty pleased with the design and we came up with 11 original poses for him. My favorite one has got the MMA (mixed martial arts theme) pose that we came up with. He’s standing victorious over Santa Claus that he’s obviously just beaten that snot out of. Don’t worry! Santa will get his revenge in the Christmas Collection! 

The Easter Collection contains 18 pieces of vector clipart and stock illustrations including a toss pattern, icons and extra characters. If you’re designing anything with a holiday theme then this affordable collection is for you! Check it out here and make sure you sign up for our newsletter or become a member for discount codes, sales, exclusive products and content! Well, I hope you enjoyed our exploration of Easter and its traditions. Don’t forget to check us out next week for more. Same Bat time, Same Bat channel! Lata!