- Title: GERMANY: EASTER BUNNY MUSEUM
- Date: 30th March 2002
- Summary: (U5)MUNICH, GERMANY (MARCH 28, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. PAN FROM SIGN TO GLASS CASES AT ENTRANCE TO EASTER BUNNY MUSEUM WITH EASTER BUNNIES IN IT 2. WIDE OF GLASS CASE 3. CLOSE UP OF EASTER BUNNY FROM THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY 4. VARIOUS VIEWS OF PAPER-MACHE EASTER BUNNIES FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE 19TH CENTURY 5. (SOUNDBITE) (Germa
- Embargoed: 14th April 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MUNICH, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVA5RBGDOZGQ4HIB539M7WWGXX46
- Story Text: Just like his winter friend, Santa Claus, the Easter
Bunny also plays an important role in children's lives, and
now there is even a museum in Munich, Germany which documents
the 'egg-laying' rabbits' adventures throughout history.
The museum has more than 2,000 different Easter Bunnies
on display, some of whom are more than 150 years old.
The rabbit is actually a symbol which dates back to Greek
and Roman history. It was also the holy animal of the Germanic
Goddess of Spring, Ostara. But the Easter Bunny as a gift
bringer is a relatively new incarnation for the animal.
"Around 1680, a doctor made the first reference to an
Easter Bunny," said Hermine Krakau, who works at the museum.
"The doctor, Georg Frank, who lived in southwestern
Germany, wrote about a rabbit which laid eggs and then hid
them in the garden for children to find. The Easter Bunny
itself is a fertility symbol, which is associated with
Aphrodite and Ostara, but is not an animal which was taken
over by the church or religion, as opposed to Easter Eggs.
Eggs were taken over by the chuch. But the bunny is a very
loveable fellow and that is why the children love him," she
added.
Hermine Krakau also said that city children more readily
believed in the Easter Bunny, than country children, who knew
rabbits didn't lay eggs.
It took a while longer for the children in rural Germany
to believe in the Easter Bunny but, here too, he began to
conquer hearts and minds when he brought gifts and sweets to
celebrate Easter and the coming of Spring.
Around 1900, when the industrial era began and people had
to work very hard, the Bunny also had to work, according to
Krakau. There was a female bunny for cooking in the
kitchen, or a male bunny dressed as a teacher standing in
front of the bunny children.
Today, children and their parents can't imagine an Easter
without the bunny, just as Santa Claus and his flying reindeer
have been accepted as an integral part of Christmas tradition.
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