The April 24 Easter edition of The Columbian featured a story “How did the bunny become Easter’s secular symbol?” on the origins of Easter’s Bunny, which cites an old “goddess of spring” named Eostre who carried hares and dyed-red eggs in ancient Anglo-Saxon myth.
This story has been going around neopagan communities for many years. For an academic dissection of this story, which is actually a recently-made myth, I direct interested readers to http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/502368.html.
For what it’s worth, the 1979 World Book Encyclopedia states that the bunny originated from a German tale in which a poor mother hid colored eggs outdoors one Easter for her children to find. When the children found them, a rabbit was seen hopping away from the spot, leading the children to believe that the rabbit had brought the eggs.
Their mother did not correct their assumption, to protect her secret, and so the tradition of the Easter Bunny was born.
