Hopping Down The Bunny Trail

     Happy Easter to all! At the moment, I hope that you're scouring your house or backyard for hidden pastel eggs, or indulging in your basket full of chocolate, or sharing a wholesome brunch with people that you love. However, is it just me, or is Easter one of those holidays that I just forget about. There's nothing wrong with it, it's a perfectly lovely holiday. We get Friday off of school, I love treasure hunts, and I love brunch. So what is it that makes this holiday so forgettable to me?
     I've pondered the memorability of this holiday several times, and I've come to one conclusion. There are just too many darn things I don't understand about the holiday! Obviously, Easter is quite the religious holiday. Coming from a religiously neutral family doesn't really help me in understanding the technical aspects as to what happened on this day that made it so special. I know that it starts with Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), where you feast and party and sin until the sun goes down. Then on Ash Wednesday, Lent begins, where you give up something you regularly indulge in. Then there's Good Friday, which who even knows what's happening on that day? Then on Easter Sunday, Lent is over and an over sized bunny invades your home and leaves eggs. Excuse me for being confused.
     Now this brings me to my biggest confusion. The eggs. If it's an Easter Bunny that is leaving you these little treats...why the heck is he leaving you eggs? Am I the only one who's perplexed by this? Bunny's do not lay eggs. Where did they get these eggs? Were they stolen? Is the Easter bunny really a bandit, nabbing eggs from innocent birds' nests?
     Don't get me wrong, I really do like Mardi Gras, and Good Friday, and Easter, and all that jazz; they're very enjoyable holidays. It's just that every year it seems they just sneak up on me. I'm always counting down to holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, however Easter just seems to go right under my nose every year. In order to cure this lapse in memory, I think it's about time I do some reading up on the true significance of Easter. We've all heard the Christmas stories told and retold since before we can remember. We know the tale of the first Thanksgiving by heart. Now I think it's the Easter Bunny's turn, it's time to learn about his origins and culture.