Easter in Germany

In Germany the hare brings the eggs and hides them

Something odd happens throughout Germany on Easter Sunday. Whether in flats, houses or gardens, excited children run about, pushing the furniture aside, lifting the cushions and looking under trees and bushes. Why? Easter is the time at which German children look in the most obscure corners for brightly coloured Easter eggs that have been brought the night before by the "Easter Hare" and hidden.

But why is it a hare that brings the eggs at this Christian festival? "This is a tradition that has evolved gradually from the Middle Ages," says Beate Witzel, a biologist working in the natural history collection in Berlin's City Museum. At the time Maundy Thursday marked the end of the business year, and on that day the farmers had to pay their dues on the land to the owners - usually in kind.

As a result of the Lent fast preceding Easter they tended to have a lot of eggs. They cooked these and paid their dues with them. And at the same time they presented to their lords the hares - often in considerable numbers - that they had killed in their fields.

"This is how the combination of hare and egg came about and became entrenched in the minds of the people over the years," Witzel says. During the 17th Century adults began to tell their children that the eggs came from the Easter hares, although the elusive hare was for a long time not the only bringer of eggs. Foxes, storks and cranes were for a long time competitors, but by the end of World War II the hare had won. At this time chocolate makers discovered the hare with its bulging eyes and produced only chocolate hares at Easter time. They ensured that to this day the hare brings the eggs.