About Easter Baskets And Other Traditions

Children learn about Easter in numerous ways. They make Easter bonnets out of colored paper and color Easter eggs. They may attend a mass if they are Christian or a Passover Seder if Jewish. They anxiously await the arrival of the Easter bunny to bring baskets full of chocolates and eggs.

Perhaps the reading of a book called "Peter Cottontail" or the singing a song called "Hot Cross Buns" will transpire. Families may plant flowers or spend more time outdoors as the days grow longer and warmer. At this time of year there is a plethora of ancient cultural traditions that have survived to modern times, spanning across several different continents and thousands of generations.

To learn about Easter symbols of our present day, we must look past religious symbolism, since many of our modern traditions stem from ancient cultures pre-dating Christianity. Early Anglo-Saxons celebrated the vernal equinox, one of two days out of the year when the sun fixes itself directly over the equator, causing an equally long day and night.

For many this was a new beginning, the start of spring and a time for a fresh start after an often toilsome winter. At this time, the Anglo-Saxons commemorated their goddess of fertility, who always appeared with her furry, wide-eyed companion, the hare.

While she goes by many names from Aphrodite (Cyprus), Astarte (Greece) and Ashtoreth (Israel) to Hathor (Egypt), Kali (India) and Ostara (Norway), she was known to the Anglo-Saxons as "Eastre." It is no surprise, then, where the word "Easter" came from or why the Easter bunny became one of the most identifiable symbols of Easter.

Many of our beliefs about Easter and our current traditions came over to the New World from the old one our ancestors left. The Germans, English, Russians, Ukrainians, Poles and Nordic peoples came over to America, bringing many of their cultural associations with them.

The Germans had long written about "Oschterhase," the Easter hare who brought laid colored eggs in shallow nests for children. The British had many contests like egg jarping, egg rolls and egg hunts. The Nordic commemorated the spring fertility goddess Ostara (also known as "Eastre") and her companion the hare.

The Slavic people brought over their tradition of decorating lavish Easter eggs in brilliant colors. Aside from religion, our Easter celebration is largely a cultural one too.

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