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How the Easter Bunny made a career

2021-04-03T07:31:33.491Z


Every child knows that the Easter bunny hides colored eggs at Easter. In contrast to egg and lamb, however, the hare does not come from the Christian faith. Like Santa Claus, however, he has had a remarkable career over the past 200 years - a search for clues.


Every child knows that the Easter bunny hides colored eggs at Easter.

In contrast to egg and lamb, however, the hare does not come from the Christian faith.

Like Santa Claus, however, he has had a remarkable career over the past 200 years - a search for clues.

Munich

- Who doesn't know him, the strict teacher from the bunny school?

He stands there in a frock coat, pocket watch and glasses.

The little rabbits wear bow ties and dungarees or frilly dresses and hats.

Albert Sixtus' picture book from 1924 showed rabbits dressed for the first time and in an upright gait - just like humans.

And even today, many a chocolate bunny in the supermarket reminds of her in a retro look.

But since when has the Easter Bunny been part of Easter?

Easter is the highest holiday for Christians.

For them the egg stands for the resurrection of Jesus.

Cold and dead on the outside, new life grows inside.

The Easter lamb also stands for overcoming death.

However, as is well known, there is no rabbit in the Bible.

“The importance of the Easter Bunny today is remarkable.

Precisely because there is no Christian background, ”explains Daniela Sandner from the National Association for Homeland Care.

However, she considers the myth that the rabbit stands for fertility because of its willingness to mate as the sole explanation to be too banal.

The fact that rabbits have always been spotted in large numbers in the countryside in spring, on the other hand, could be one of the reasons that in some regions they were quickly interpreted as egg messengers at Easter.

The most important thing for Sander is that a narrative culture has gradually developed around the church festival and the rabbit - this was the only way that he could become a national “Easter animal”.

The rabbit on the triumphal procession to the "Easter animal" and egg messenger

"Up until the end of the 17th century, the rabbit as an Easter figure had little literary significance," she explains.

It appeared for the first time in 1682 in the essay by Heidelberg medicine professor Georg Franck von Franckenau: “In southwest Germany, in the Palatinate, in Alsace and Westphalia, Easter eggs are called rabbit eggs.

Children are made to believe that the Easter Bunny is hatching them. ”Such writings were hardly accessible to the common people at that time.

It was only when they were mass printed that they became more available.

The common man could soon read and write all the better.

Christoph von Schmid's stories for children were popular.

In 1815 he also wrote about the Easter Bunny.

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Milka has had seasonal products since 1926: In addition to the Easter bunny, there has also been a chocolate Santa Claus since then.

© Milka

Illustrations were also decisive for his triumphant advance.

Franz Graf Pocci made a lithograph for Georg Scherer's rhymes in 1850 with the “Osterhas”.

At the end of the 19th century, images and motifs became more and more important anyway: “Around 1900, postcards were like text messages.

Sometimes they were sent several times a day, ”says Sandner.

The rabbit thus became a popular Easter motif: "It was not until the 1920s that it established itself as an Easter animal."

The Easter Bunny has a steep career: the Roaring Twenties drive commercialization forward

"Cocoa and sugar are available again after the First World War - the demand is great and the money is there," says Sandner.

In 1921, the Oberpollinger department store advertised in the “Münchener Zeitung” for “Easter gifts, eggs, rabbits and nests - a large selection of filled and unfilled”.

For the first time, eggs and bunnies made from chocolate are no longer a luxury and affordable.

Previously, the underlayer made them only from yeast or waffle batter.

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"Gebildbrote" like this egg bunny or the baked Easter lamb with the victory flag are not uncommon for the church Easter to this day.

© Bayerischer Landesverein für Heimatpflege eV

These "Gebildbrote" or the baked Easter lamb with the victory flag are not uncommon for the church festival to this day.

Commercially, however, the Easter bunny had a steep career at the latest: since 1926, Milka has been making Easter bunnies out of chocolate in addition to Santa Clauses.

Lindt followed suit in 1952 - the chocolate bunny has long since become an indispensable part of Easter eggs.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-04-03

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