JAKARTA - Easter is synonymous with hiding and finding eggs and decorating eggs. In addition, it is often found a symbol of the rabbit either on greeting cards or during Easter celebrations. What is the meaning? How do eggs and rabbits correlate with Easter celebrations?
The celebration of Easter is a day to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. This memorial falls on the third day after Good Friday, the Day of Jesus' Death. Although Easter is a religious holiday, not all of its symbols are religious symbols. Like eggs and rabbits are symbols that come from hereditary traditions.
Easter falls during the spring when flowers bloom and baby animals are born, which means new life. In ancient culture, eggs were also defined as life. Whereas from a Christian perspective, the Easter egg is said to represent the emergence of Jesus from the grave as well as His resurrection.
Reporting from the TIME page, the story of the origin of the Easter egg may not come from Christians, but from a different religion. Because in medieval Europe, many other celebrations fell in conjunction with the Easter holiday.
In the book Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain written by Ronald Hutton, a history professor at the University of Bristol, it is written that colored eggs appeared in British history around 1290, when Edward I's family purchased 450 eggs to color. and covered with gold leaf to distribute to royal parties. The book also states that two centuries later, the Vatican sent an egg wrapped in a silver box as a change of season gift to Henry VIII.
Since the 13th century, the tradition of decorating eggs for Easter has become more widespread in society. It was at this time that it was known that British villagers carried Easter eggs as gifts as well as special offerings to the church on Good Friday. One of the reasons this tradition is easy to enforce is because the prohibition of fasting during Lent was much stricter than it is today.
During the fast, Christians are not allowed to eat any meat or animal products - including cheese, milk, cream, or eggs - so they prefer to paint and decorate the eggs of their pet chickens and then keep them until the end of the fast. The color most often used to paint eggs is red, as this color is considered to signify joy.
Relation to rabbitsThe decorated eggs are then told to be delivered by an Easter bunny. There is no definite explanation that explains why the rabbit animal can be associated with Easter. In the Bible also does not mention the existence of this one furry mammal. However, according to History, the rabbit is an ancient symbol of fertility and new life.
Mentioned from several different sources, the rabbit as a symbol of Easter appeared for the first time in America in the 1700s. At that time there were German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania, it was they who carried the rabbit laying tradition called "Osterhase" or "Oschter Haws".
Their chicks decorate the nest of the rabbits that lay eggs in various colors. Over time this custom spread throughout the US.
There is also the tale of the Easter bunny sending eggs on the morning of this celebration. As it develops, the decorated nest turns into a basket. People also started to include chocolates, various types of candy and other gifts in the Easter bunny baskets. Not infrequently they also leave carrots for rabbits when they are hungry.
* Read other information about Easter or read other interesting articles from Ramdan Febrian.
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