 |
| Stall of lace goods which included some rabbits |
On
to the backup plan, then: an exploration of the “fairy tale” of Easter. What
better way to see the trappings of the secular side of this upcoming holiday
than to visit an Easter market, right?
Yesterday
I took the train to Nuremberg, thinking their advertised market would be the
Easter equivalent of their Christmas market.
Or, at a minimum, akin to the
Easter market I went to a couple of years ago in Hamburg’s Museum for Ethnology.
It
was neither.
Instead, it
was essentially a regular market with a slight focus on this time of year.
Meaning the usual household goods, weather-appropriate clothing and gear,
spices, etc. Plus linen vendors displaying their Easter-related table runners,
placemats, curtains and one or two vendors with a few hand-painted eggs in addition
to their regular toys or collectibles.
 |
| Hand-painted egg I found in the main market. |
I
had a little better luck in the small village of hand-worked goods between the main
market square and the train station, but overall my Easter-themed fairy tale
outing was a bust.
 |
| Hand-painted egg I found in the Handwerk Hof. |
Except
in one regard. I did learn a tiny bit more about the numerous origin tales of the egg-toting, gift-giving Easter hare, as he’s known here.
The earliest mention seems to be in the 1500s, and the primary recurring theories are as follows:
* an amalgamation of symbols of fertility and the rebirth associated with spring;
* an association formed from farmers giving hares and eggs together as spring payments to landlords; or
* a representation of the companion of the pagan spring goddess for whom Easter was named. Supposedly she had to transform her companion from a bird into a hare, but because it was originally a bird it still produced eggs.
 |
| Spending time with the Easter bunny in Hanau in 197 |
A couple
of other theories attempt to make the secular aspects of Easter more sacred.
Apparently some scholars believed hares were hermaphrodites and therefore associated their “virgin”
reproduction with the Virgin Mary.
And there was an Orthodox tradition of not
eating eggs during Lent, boiling them so they would keep, then decorating them
to celebrate the end of the fast.
I’m
all for some rebirth and celebration right now. It’s been a beautiful winter,
but with last night’s snowfall trying to dampen the cheer of sprouting crocuses, I’m hoping that the Easter hare’s visit
in a couple of weeks brings spring to stay for good!
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