It probably hasn't escaped your notice that today is Good Friday and this weekend is Easter weekend. I'm off to Scotland in a few hours which I am very excited about, but before I go I thought I'd better do today's Friday Feeling post. And because it's Easter, what could be more appropriate than... bunnies? You know, those cutesy little bundles of fluff? Oh... wait... this week my finds are not 'cutesy' but they are stunning and eye-catching and I love them! What do you think?
A few random facts I came across in my search today...
Rabbits have large eyes but a blind spot right in front of their face, but they can see behind themselves without turning their heads.
Rabbits can run about 35mph and jump about 36 inches.
Rabbits don't like being picked up, can't vomit and the wrong food can kill them.
They need to exercise about 4 hours a day or osteoporosis can set in.
The Easter Bunny has its origins in the ancient pagan festival of the goddess Eostre. Her symbols were the hare and the egg because both symbolised new life, and of course hares (and rabbits) are very prolific in their production of offspring. Much of Early Christianity's success was due to the fact that they amalgamated local festivals into Church festivals, using the same dates, symbols etc but changing the focus to a Christian event. Over time the pagan gods and goddesses were replaced by Christian worship but certainly in the case of Easter, the name of the festival and the symbols remained.
The Osterhase (Easter Hare) was first written about in the 1500s and was already by then a tradition whereby the hare brought eggs and hid them. The tradition was taken over to America by early German and Dutch settlers.
The Easter Hare eventually became the Easter Rabbit because most people talk about both generically as rabbits, even when they are hares (think: Jack Rabbit) and over time the rabbit was turned into a cute little fluffy bunny who brings children eggs.
As a child, one of my favourite books was 'The Velveteen Rabbit' by Margery Williams. It's a beautiful story about how one boy's toy rabbit comes to life because he loves it so much. I spent a fair amount of time as a child trying to make my toys come to life too... If you haven't read it, here's Meryl Streep reading it for you:
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