The Easter Bunny may be visiting many Christian homes on Sunday to deliver a basket of goodies, but how did an egg-delivering rabbit become part of Easter celebrations?
There is some controversy as to the actual genesis of the tradition. Some researchers say rabbits and their prolific reproduction capabilities were associated with the spring season long before Christianity existed.
The Royal Society, a British scientific fellowship, states that the first mention of an Easter rabbit in print can be attributed to a passage in "De ovis paschalibus" by Johannes Richier in the 1682 collection "Satyrae Medicae."
Richier explains a tradition in the Palatine, Alsace and Westphalia regions of Germany.
"He notes that it is common practice for people in these regions to search for 'Easter eggs' or 'Hare eggs,' and that the local children (and more gullible adults) are told that these were hatched and brought by the 'Osterhase' or Easter Hare, who hides the eggs in the garden, in the grass and shrubs," an article by The Royal Society's Rainer Godel states.
The earliest known visual depiction of an Easter rabbit has some direct ties to the Berks region.
There actually are two depictions credited to schoolteacher Johan Conrad Gilbert, who lived in Berks County prior to 1811.
On the back of the Gilbert fraktur that is in the possession of the Abby Alrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Colonial Willamsburg, there is a handwritten note stating in German it "belongs to Johannes Bolich in Brunswick Township Berks County" according to a description by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Brunswick Township was part of Berks County until Schuylkill County was incorporated on March 1, 1811.
Another depiction attributed to Gilbert is in the Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Del.
Whether you call it "Oschter Haws," "Oster Haas," "Osterhase" or Easter bunny, it definitely has a Berks connection.
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