What's with the Easter Bunny?

I am exhausted writing this right now and I was trying to come up with a clever question to title this post (since the title of my blog is "Questions from a Wife and Mother", I always post a question in the title). Why didn't I title my blog something easy.. like the Justin & Nicole's Family blog.. I don't know. Anyway, I googled question and Easter.. to see if I could find a clever title and I found this. I wanted to share, because I didn't know how the Easter bunny was attached to Easter (the day Jesus rose from the grave). I thought you might like to know.. Also pictures from our Easter Party and Easter Egg Hunt are attached below along with the results from Freebie Friday.

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Christ, but it's not just a religious holiday. Many children probably look forward to a visit from a certain Peter Cottontail.

So what's the story behind the Easter Bunny?

It's part of a pagan tradition that started in Germany as part of a spring celebration. It honored Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of dawn and spring; a fertility goddess who brought the end of winter. One version of the bunny legend comes when she comes late one spring and finds a bird with wings frozen to the ground. She turns it into a snow hare with the ability to lay eggs in rainbow colors one day a year.

Eggs have always symbolized life and regeneration.

Scholars say one reason the resurrection of Christ is tied to the pagan calendar and spring festivals is it symbolizes new life and new awareness.

I thought that was interesting, but now back to our Easter.. Here is a short synopsis: Kate went through her first Easter basket (my mom got the basket for her from Potterybarn {thank you mom!}.. I love it and look forward to using it every Easter). She wore her adorable Easter dress to church; we went to church (the service was amazing); had some of our friends and their families over for lunch and an Easter Egg Hunt.

Here are some pictures..

Kate's Easter Basket... honestly, we just got her a couple little things from the dollar store and put in stuffed animals she already had... yes we are cheap... the stuffed animals we put in there we didn't even buy.. they were gifts she got when was born... but she didn't notice and loved getting those things again.

Kate in her first Easter dress.. she is holding a Disney princess she found in her basket (yes, that was new from the Dollar Store.. and yes, they sell Disney stuff at the Dollar Store.. who knew?..

We caught her stealing another little girl's eggs... see the guilty look on her face...

The "mom's" of all the families that came over... (with us and all their kids we had about 20 people).. I am so glad the weather was perfect and we were able to enjoy being outside.

Our Family.. Easter 2009

Justin and I always miss our families so much at Easter (and all holidays we can't be with them... and every day in between), but we did have a wonderful day with amazing friends! I hope you had a great Easter also!

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Freebie Friday Results... follow our blog and come back next week for a Waxing Poetic jewelry giveaway.

Here is the winner using random.org.. random number generator:

Congratulations Meghan!! I will e-mail you.

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2

Timestamp: 2009-04-13 14:17:30 UTC