ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Easter Bunny has been sent packing at St. Paul City Hall.
A toy rabbit, pastel-colored eggs and a sign with the words "Happy Easter" were removed from the lobby of the City Council offices, because of concerns they might offend non-Christians.
A council secretary had put up the decorations. They were not bought with city money.
St. Paul's human rights director, Tyrone Terrill, asked that the decorations be removed, saying they could be offensive to non-Christians.
Somebody should tell this imbecile that the EASTER BUNNY isn't a religious symbol.
Thanks for handing the right-wingers a club. They will, of course, use this stupidity to try and tar everyone who favors the separation of church and state.
Idiot.
2 comments:
Parrdon ... since when is the bunny NOT a religious symbol? Like the egg, it´s a symbol of fertility sacred to Ostara (Freya), goddess of Spring (among, erm, other things. You know how these neolithic vegetation goddesses are ;b).
I´d really love to see a Bible thumper defend it on Old Testament grounds (g).
OTOH, I´d fire any public servant who puts up pastel-coloured bunnies in public spaces. There are limits :).
Well, while there is a modern pagan Spring Equinox rite for Ostara, there is really no evidence that the ancient pagans had a spring equinox festival named for that goddess. There is also no evidence that there was any rabbit figure associated with either Eostre or Ostara (and those two may or may not be the same goddess).
The only ancient mention of Eostre comes from Bede, (c. AD 700) who says that the fourth month of the year - Eostremonath - was named for her, and that the name "Easter" derives from the name of the month, not directly from the name of the goddess. Other than that, absolutely nothing is known about her. That is the only known mention.
And the only knows mention of Ostara comes from Jakob Grimm, (c. 1800) who said she appeared in Dutch legends, and who also gives scant information. Neither Bede nor Grimm mention any rabbit associated with either of those goddesses. And there is nothing else known about them. Modern linguistic scholarship finds that the names cognate with name words for dawn, so they may have been dawn goddesses instead of Spring goddesses.
It IS true that the bunny figure seems to have been carried to America by German peasants, and it's *possible* that it has some pagan connection, but there is really no evidence for it. It might just come from the fact that rabbits come out in the spring.
And of course, the rabbit is only associated with Easter in America. You won't find it anywhere else. It seems to have died out on Germany. And the holiday is only called "Easter" in English-speaking countries ("Pascha" - passover - every place else) and had been in existence for 700 years before the English started to call it that.
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