Easter Bunny
folkloric figure and symbol of Easter
The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit—sometimes dressed with clothes—bringing Easter eggs to people. Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behavior at the start of the season of Eastertide, similar to the "naughty or nice" list made by Santa Claus. As part of the legend, the creature carries colored eggs in its basket, as well as candy, and sometimes toys, to the homes of children. As such, the Easter Bunny again shows similarities to Santa (or the Christkind) and Christmas by bringing gifts to children on the night before a holiday. The custom was mentioned in a German text from 1572, which translated reads: “Do not worry if the Easter Bunny escapes you; should we miss his eggs, we will cook the nest” and in Georg Franck von Franckenau's De ovis paschalibus ("About Easter Eggs") in 1682, referring to a German folk belief of an Easter Hare laying eggs hidden in garden and bushes for children to find in egg hunt.
Symbols
Rabbits and hares
The hare was a popular motif in medieval church art. In ancient times, it was widely believed (as by Pliny, Plutarch, Philostratus, and Aelian) that the hare was a hermaphrodite. The idea that a hare could reproduce without loss of virginity led to an association with the Virgin Mary, with hares sometimes occurring in illuminated manuscripts and Northern European paintings of the Virgin and Christ Child. It may also have been associated with the Holy Trinity, as in the three hares motif.
Eggs
In Christianity, for the celebration of Eastertide, Easter eggs symbolize the tomb of Jesus, from which Jesus was resurrected.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q108636. The Library of Congress control number is sh2007002263. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1572 and 1682.
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This entry incorporates text from “Easter Bunny” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.