Which came first - the bunny or the egg?

As many of you have noticed, the blog has been down for a while, and will continue to be updated infrequently until the summer when I plan to be writing daily again. That being said, I couldn't help but offer a little commentary about the stranger Easter traditions.

It all began this year, when I received an odd box from E. B. at my Grandmother's address. There is nobody at that address who has those initials, so I was a little puzzled, wondering 1) if perhaps one of my grandmother's stuffed animals had sent me something or 2) if she was simply going senile and forgot that her name isn't Ethel. Well, inside, there was a lot of chocolate, so I figured out that E. B. stood for Easter Bunny (regular Sherlock Holmes I am).

What's also interesting about this whole episode is the fact that my grandmother is Jewish. Both of her sons married Christian women, and for the first time this year, we all celebrated Christmas together. Maybe she figured Easter is like a part of Christmas or something - I'm not really sure (just giving you a hard time, Grandma). (Yes, that's right, my grandmother reads my blog. I know you're jealous now!)

But what I really want to talk about is this tradition of Easter eggs. I can't figure this one out. So we've got Santa Claus for Christmas and the Easter Bunny for Easter. Okay, one of those is a seriously better creation (sorry little kids); I'll leave you to decide which one. But why do we have Easter eggs then? Everything at Easter revolves around eggs. We die eggs. We hide eggs. We eat chocolate in the shape of eggs. It's an eggs-ellent holiday.

So the question is, ironically, "which came first - the bunny or the egg?" If the bunny came first, then why on earth do we do all this stuff with eggs at Easter? And if the eggs came first, then why don't we have an Easter Sparrow or an Easter Tortoise or some other Easter animal that actually lays eggs? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that something just doesn't line up here.

There's something else here, which just doesn't line up either. At Christmas, we give gifts, and it seems that this is based, at least to some extent, on the Three Wise Men (should they be capitalized?) bringing gifts to the Baby Jesus. But what do eggs or a really mythical bunny have to do with the resurrection of Christ? I am admittedly ignorant of religion, and there may be a very good explanation. If there is, I'd love to know, but from an outsider's perspective, you can see how all of these traditions seem a bit strange.

Regardless, enjoy your Easter eggs, even if you don't celebrate the holiday.