Origins of Easter
"Easter" comes from Eostre (also Eastre, and Ostara), an Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring (closely related to the Babylonian Goddess of Spring Ishtar) whose celebration Eostremonat was in April, during the same time period as the Jewish Passover, or Pasch.
Eostre's sacred animal, or "familiar" was a rabbit (aka bunny). Feeling guilty about arriving late one spring, the Goddess saved the life of a poor bird whose wings had been frozen by the snow. She made him her pet or, as some versions have it, her lover. Filled with compassion for him since he could no longer fly (in some versions, it was because she wished to amuse a group of young children), Eostre turned him into a snow hare and gave him the gift of being able to run with incredible speed so he could evade his hunters.
In remembrance of his earlier form as a bird, she also gave him the ability to lay eggs (in all the colors of the rainbow, no less), but only on one day out of each year.
Eventually the hare managed to anger the goddess Eostre, and she cast him into the skies where he would remain as the constellation Lepus (The Hare) forever positioned under the feet of the constellation Orion (the Hunter). He was allowed to return to Earth once each year, but only to give away his eggs to the children attending the Eostre festivals that were held each spring. The tradition of the Easter Bunny and his eggs had begun.
Easter grass also stems from this lore, being that children would build a nest of grass for Eostre's bunny to lay his eggs in for them to collect. Sometimes the bunny would lay his eggs in hidden places, and children had to hunt for them.
Eggs were viewed as symbols of new life and fertility through the ages. It is believed that for this reason many ancient cultures, including the Ancient Egyptians, Persians, and Romans, used eggs during their spring festivals. The coloring of eggs was an established art, being dyed, painted, or otherwise decorated.
The Catholic's First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of to celebrate the rising of their savior Jesus as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox, so that it would coincide with the Jewish Passover (Pasch) and the pagan Eostremonat. For those people to continue celebrating their favorite holidays would help facilitate their conversion to Christianity.
The Eostre traditions were celebrations of renewed life over death during the spring, which the Christians pointed out is not unlike the Christian celebration of Jesus' resurection.
Modern use of the Easter basket can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when Catholics would give up eating eggs for lent. To keep eggs that were laid during this time period, they were boiled and stored. Celebrating the end of Lent, Catholics around Europe would hold Mass and feast on large meals, usually brought to the church in baskets to be blessed by the Priest, almost always including these eggs which were by the end of Lent, plentiful. Eventually this morphed into the modern smorgasbord of candy and treats nestled in the grass for the Eostre Bunny and carried in a basket.
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