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Easter For Home Schoolers: The Easter Rabbit
The Easter Rabbit fills the spring season with colored eggs through commercials, window displays, and yard decorations. Where did this figure come from' Why are young home school children taught to believe that a rabbit brings them colored eggs once a year if they are good' Should Christian home schoolers' holiday festivities include the celebration of this mythical character'The Easter Rabbit is said to bring chocolates and candies in baskets for good little homeschoolers every Easter morning. Young home school children are also taught that the Easter Rabbit brings beautiful colored eggs and hides them throughout the house or yard.
The Easter Rabbits roots lie in ancient folklore. Hares and eggs symbolize fertility. To ancient cultures, spring was a time to celebrate fertility. Eggs and hares are symbolic of seasonal mating activities. Hares are lagomorphs, meaning that they breed prolifically, even engaging in superfetation, where a female hare can become conceive a second littler while currently pregnant with a first litter. Eggs and hares have come to be recognized in tandem over time as a unified symbol of fertility.
The tradition of coloring eggs is rooted in the Greek practice of coloring eggs red to symbolize new life in the spring. Other colors were used to symbolize the rainbow, and green signified new foliage. The Pennsylvania Dutch are credited with bringing this custom to American shores. They taught their children of the Osterhase, or "Easter Hare". Children provided their upturned caps which would become nests for Easter eggs brought by the Osterhase. It's important that Christian home schoolers teach their children about the real meaning of Easter. However, there's no harm in coloring eggs or enjoying candy on Easter.