History of Easter traditions from Easter bunnies, chocolate eggs, hot cross buns and the pagan roots of the spring festival

What are the origins of our Easter traditions? And why are there so many eggs, bunnies, and chickens at this time of year?

According to the Christian tradition, Easter commemorates and celebrates the death and resurrection of the Christian saviour Jesus Christ.

It coincides with the Jewish Passover and ends the 40-day period of Lent which is typically observed by Catholics.

On Good Friday, Christians pause to recall Jesus' eight-hour death by crucifixion at the hands of the Romans.

When Sunday arrives, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ, which according to the Gospel tail, occurred three days after his death.

Easter Monday thus becomes an observance of the Sunday celebration, and there you have your four-day weekend!

Easter Sunday will always fall on the Sunday after the first moon in March. This full moon is typically referred to as the March equinox or the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere.

This full moon tradition is said to have come through the Easter festival's collision with the once-celebrated pagan festival of Ostara.

The pagan goddess was said to bring forth the springtime (in the northern hemisphere) and was to be praised for her gift of fertility and abundance during the warmer months.

For the Christian tradition, it's important that Easter falls within the Jewish Passover period.

In the original story of Jesus, it was during Passover that Christ entered Jerusalem and established the Last Supper with his 12 disciples. It was the last meal he took before he was arrested and crucified.

The egg is a symbol of rebirth and resurrection that may also be connected to the pagan cult of Ostara.

But, the traditional Easter egg hunt may be attributed to the German Protestant Reformer Martin Luther, who, during the 16th Century, encouraged men in his parish to hide decorated hard-boiled eggs for the women and children to seek.

Since then, thankfully, the eggs have been replaced with a chocolate version, which we can all agree is far superior not least in the fact that a forgotten chocolate egg is much kinder on the olfactory senses than a hard-boiled one!

Anyone who has studied Year 7 level biology will be able to tell you: Rabbits don't lay eggs. So what's the deal with the Easter bunny?!

This one may also go back to the festival's pagan links. Some sources dating back to the 1700s indicate that German migrants to America circulated the myth of Osterhase, an egg-laying hare.

As the name should suggest, Osterhase is the symbol of Ostara, the pagan goddess that brings forth springtime prosperity.

It may have been a 14^th Century monk from the Cathedral of St Albans, England who first baked the iconic spiced cinnamon buns.

To celebrate the resurrection Sunday, the monk was said to give out the buns to the poorer families in the community.

Two centuries later, Queen Elizabeth I was said to believe the buns were so sacred that she made the sale illegal on any day other than religious holidays (Christmas, Easter, and specific memorial days only).

Making or selling the buns on any other day was punishable by law because the queen considered the buns to be too holy for regular days.

Imagine how the last Tudor monarch would have received the age-old debate that consumes us all, on whether we should be selling hot cross buns all year round! Sacre bleu!