69 Fun Facts About Easter Bunny

In which year was the foil-wrapped Gold Bunny with its red ribbon first produced?

The Gold Bunny first appeared in 1952; the foil-wrapped milk-chocolate bunny with its red ribbon became its Swiss maker's best-known Easter product.

What was the 'Easter Hare's' original role in German Lutheran folklore?

The 'Easter Hare' originally served as a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient at the start of Eastertide, much like Santa Claus.

German immigrants brought the tradition of the 'Osterhase' to which U.S. state in the 1700s?

German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania in the 1700s are widely credited with introducing the Easter Hare tradition to America.

In Hop, what does E.B. produce instead of ordinary rabbit droppings?

E.B. poops jelly beans, a running gag in Hop (2011) that first appears after he moves into the house Fred O'Hare is minding.

The association of bunnies and hares with Easter stems from their historical symbolism of what?

Rabbits and hares are known for their rapid reproduction, making them ancient symbols of fertility and the renewal of life associated with spring.

What hangs from the red ribbon around the neck of the foil-wrapped Gold Bunny?

A small bell, golden like the foil, hangs from the red ribbon around the Gold Bunny's neck; the milk-chocolate bunny is its Swiss maker's signature Easter product.

President Rutherford B. Hayes started which Easter tradition at the White House?

Rutherford B. Hayes opened the White House grounds for the Egg Roll in 1878, after Congress's 1876 Turf Protection Law ended egg rolling on the Capitol lawn.

What color did early Christians dye Easter eggs, symbolizing the blood of Christ?

Many Christians, especially in Eastern Orthodox traditions, dye their Easter eggs red to symbolize the blood of Christ.

Which chocolatier's gold-foil bunny was granted trademark status in 2000?

Lindt registered the shape of its gold-foil Gold Bunny as a three-dimensional trademark, later defending it in court against Hauswirth in Austria and Lidl in Switzerland.

In German-influenced early American tradition, what did children make for the 'Osterhase' to leave eggs in?

Children would make nests, often from their caps or bonnets, for the Easter Hare to deposit colored eggs.

A medieval belief that the hare could reproduce chastely linked it to whom?

The hare was believed able to reproduce without losing its virginity, so it became linked with the Virgin Mary and appears in manuscripts and paintings of the Virgin and Christ Child.

Which dog won the first Cadbury Bunny tryouts in 2019?

Henri, an English bulldog from North Carolina, won the inaugural 2019 Cadbury Bunny tryouts and appeared in that year's Creme Egg commercial wearing bunny ears.

Which endangered marsupial is Australia's anti-rabbit Easter gift-bringer?

Nicholas Newland of the Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia pushed the idea in 1991, and bilby-shaped chocolates now fund conservation.

The Easter Bunny is a prominent character in which 2011 animated film about the son of the Easter Bunny?

Hop (2011) follows E.B., the Easter Bunny's teenage son, who runs away to Hollywood from the candy factory hidden beneath Easter Island.

Which classic 1971 stop-motion animated film features a race to become the next Easter Bunny?

'Here Comes Peter Cottontail' (1971) is a Rankin/Bass stop-motion TV special in which Peter must out-deliver a scheming rival to become Chief Easter Bunny.

In a popular modern legend, a spring goddess turned a frozen bird into a hare, which kept what ability?

In the tale the goddess turned a freezing bird into a hare that kept laying eggs; it has no basis in pre-Christian folklore and first appeared in K. A. Oberle's 1883 German book.

The 1974 Peanuts Easter special debuted on which US television network?

'It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown' premiered on CBS on April 9, 1974, five days before Easter, like every Peanuts special of that era.

The practice of creating decorative Easter eggs has historical connections to which Christian observance?

Historically, eggs were avoided during the Lenten fast, and when the fast ended at Easter, they were decorated and consumed as a special treat.

In France and Belgium, silent church bells are said to fly to which city before Easter?

In French and Belgian tradition the bells fall silent on Maundy Thursday and fly to Rome, returning on Easter morning to scatter eggs and chocolates.

Which rabbit in Du Bose Heyward's story aspires to be an Easter Bunny despite having many children?

Du Bose Heyward's 'The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes' features a heroine named Cottontail who becomes an Easter Bunny despite having 21 children.

In which 2012 DreamWorks film does Hugh Jackman voice the Easter Bunny as the keeper of hope?

In 'Rise of the Guardians' (2012) Hugh Jackman's Easter Bunny fights alongside North, the Tooth Fairy, Sandman and Jack Frost against Pitch Black.

Volker Kraft hung up to 10,000 decorated eggs on an apple tree in which German town?

Volker Kraft's Ostereierbaum in Saalfeld, Thuringia, grew from 18 plastic eggs in 1965 to around 10,000 decorated eggs before the family stopped in 2015.

In 'It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown', who keeps cooking the eggs meant for decorating?

Marcie, coached by Peppermint Patty, fries the eggs, bakes them, presses them in a waffle iron and finally makes egg soup, never producing one fit to decorate.

Which braided Greek Easter bread is baked with red-dyed eggs pressed into the dough?

Tsoureki is a sweet braided bread flavoured with mahleb and mastic; red-dyed hard-boiled eggs are set into the braid before it is baked for Easter.

What animated character famously hosts an 'Easter Special' featuring classic Warner Bros. cartoons?

Bugs Bunny hosted 'Bugs Bunny's Easter Special,' showcasing classic Warner Bros. cartoons with an Easter theme.

Which Jan Brett picture book follows Hoppi, a young rabbit who ends up guarding a fallen robin's egg?

In Jan Brett's 'The Easter Egg' (2010) Hoppi never finishes his own egg; he guards a fallen robin's egg instead, and its empty blue shell wins the Easter Rabbit's prize.

Which 1948 musical starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire features Irving Berlin's 'A Couple of Swells'?

'Easter Parade' (1948) pairs Judy Garland and Fred Astaire; its title number, also by Irving Berlin, is the film's best-known song, and 'A Couple of Swells' is their tramp duet.

Which 325 AD assembly is credited with tying Easter to the Sunday after spring’s full moon?

Tradition credits Constantine's bishops at Nicaea in 325 AD with the rule, though later scholarship doubts the council ever spelled it out.

Which British firm produced the first hollow chocolate Easter egg?

J. S. Fry & Sons of Bristol made Britain's first hollow chocolate Easter egg in 1873, two years before Cadbury, using a chocolate paste smooth enough to pour into moulds.

For Christians, the Easter egg is a symbol of what?

Orthodox tradition goes further, reading the hard shell as the sealed tomb and its cracking as the resurrection.

The Ukrainian art of decorating Easter eggs is known by what name?

Pysanky are Ukrainian Easter eggs decorated by a wax-resist method: designs are drawn with a stylus called a kistka, then the egg is dyed in successive colours.

Per Bede, the Anglo-Saxon month named for the goddess who gave Easter its name matches which modern month?

Bede's 'The Reckoning of Time' (725) says Eosturmonath, the month named for the goddess Eostre, corresponds to April, when feasts were held in her honour.

The idea that hares laid eggs may come from confusing their nests with those of what type of birds?

Some experts believe the notion of hares laying eggs stemmed from ancient confusion between a hare's 'form' (nest on open ground) and the nests of certain ground-nesting birds.

Which 1993 BBC documentary presented as fact that an Anglo-Saxon goddess's animal became the Easter Bunny?

The BBC's 1993 documentary 'Shadow of the Hare' presented the Eostre-hare link as fact; folklorist Christina Hole had already called the hare 'the true Easter beast' in 1961.

Which 1835 work by Jacob Grimm first connected Easter with the goddess Ostara?

Grimm's 'Deutsche Mythologie' (1835) reconstructed a goddess Ostara from Bede's Eostre and tied her to Easter; later writers, not Grimm, made the hare her sacred animal without evidence.

Which German philologist wrote in 1874 that the hare was 'probably' Ostara's sacred animal?

Holtzmann admitted the Easter Hare was 'unintelligible' to him before offering the guess, and the speculation has been repeated as fact ever since.

What do Greeks call the Easter game of tapping red eggs together until one cracks?

Tsougrisma is the Greek egg-cracking game: each player taps a red egg against another's, and whoever is left with an uncracked egg is said to have luck for the year.

Scholar Richard Sermon ties the belief that hares lay eggs to the nest of which bird?

A hare's form and a lapwing's nest are both shallow scrapes in grassland that appear in the same season, so eggs found in one were credited to the other.

Pennsylvania Dutch families sometimes spelled the egg-bringing hare's name how?

The Pennsylvania Dutch wrote the name Oschter Haws; Haws reflects German Hase, a hare rather than a rabbit, and only good children found coloured eggs in the nests they made from caps and bonnets.

British pace-eggers traditionally boiled eggs in what to give them a mottled gold colour?

Boiling eggs with onion skins gives a mottled gold-brown shell; the same onion-peel dye is used across eastern Europe, though rolled eggs are often painted or replaced with chocolate.

A Lancashire legend says broken eggshells must be crushed so witches cannot use them as what?

Witches were said to sail in eggshell boats, so shells were crushed after eating; the rolled eggs were eaten on Easter Sunday or handed to costumed pace-eggers who sang through the streets.

In which country do children bowl red and yellow eggs at a row of eggs, keeping any they crack?

Egyptians of every faith also decorate boiled eggs for Sham el-Nessim, a national festival held on the Monday after the Eastern Christian Easter.

In the 1971 Rankin/Bass Easter special, which rabbit schemes to become Chief Easter Bunny?

Irontail wears a prosthetic iron tail after a child roller-skated over the original, and wants revenge by painting eggs brown and grey and making chocolate tarantulas.

Who narrated the 1971 Rankin/Bass special about Peter Cottontail?

Kaye also voiced the peddler Seymour S. Sassafras; the special first aired on ABC on April 4, 1971 and later moved to CBS and Cartoon Network.

Which horror-film star voiced the villain in the 1971 Rankin/Bass Easter special starring Peter Cottontail?

Vincent Price played the villain; Casey Kasem, later the voice of Shaggy, played Peter himself, and TV Guide praised the score as one of the best in children's-special history.

What is the name of the time machine Peter borrows in the 1971 Cottontail special?

The Yestermorrowbile is piloted by a French caterpillar named Antoine; after sabotage it can visit every holiday except Easter, so Peter tries to give eggs away at Halloween and Christmas.

The 1971 Peter Cottontail special was adapted from a 1957 novel with what title?

'The Easter Bunny That Overslept' (1957) by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich supplied the premise; a computer-animated sequel followed in 2005 with Roger Moore voicing the villain.

In Thornton Burgess's 1914 book, why does Peter Rabbit briefly rename himself Peter Cottontail?

The new name lasts from chapter 2 to chapter 3; after his friends' teasing he concludes 'there's nothing like the old name after all' and never uses it again.

Gene Autry and others recorded the song 'Here Comes Peter Cottontail' in which year?

Gene Autry's 1950 recording was a chart hit; Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins, who also wrote 'Frosty the Snowman', had written the song in 1949.

Who narrates the 1977 Rankin/Bass special 'The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town'?

Astaire returned as mailman S.D. Kluger, the role he had narrated in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, this time driving a train.

In Hop (2011), E.B. flees Easter Island to chase what ambition?

He gets a session with The Blind Boys of Alabama and an audition for David Hasselhoff before returning to save Easter from a rebellious chick.

In Hop, which chick secretly plots a coup against the Easter Bunny?

Carlos, voiced by Hank Azaria, is the Spanish-accented chick who plots the coup and briefly becomes a chick-bunny hybrid after touching the Egg of Destiny.

Which comedian voices the teenage rabbit E.B. in Hop?

Brand also appears on camera as a production assistant, while Hugh Laurie voices E.B.'s father and James Marsden plays the human Fred O'Hare.

Which TV star plays himself in Hop and invites E.B. onto his talent show?

David Hasselhoff plays himself as host of the talent show 'Hoff Knows Talent'; Hop was Illumination's first live-action and animation hybrid.

In Rise of the Guardians, what is the Easter Bunny's full name?

E. Aster Bunnymund, voiced by Hugh Jackman with an Australian accent, comes from William Joyce's book series The Guardians of Childhood.

In Rise of the Guardians, where do the Guardians help colour eggs before Easter?

In Bunny's Warren the eggs walk through rivers of dye to be coloured; Pitch's Nightmares destroy them, children stop believing, and Bunny shrinks to the size of an ordinary rabbit.

Whose 1968 story 'Billy the Aussie Easter Bilby', written aged 9, helped spark the idea?

Rose-Marie Dusting wrote 'Billy the Aussie Easter Bilby' in 1968 at age nine and published it as a book eleven years later; the story helped catalyse public interest in saving the bilby.

Which Lancaster firm made marshmallow Peeps before Just Born took over in 1953?

The R. E. Rodda Candy Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania made the marshmallow chicks by hand; Just Born bought Rodda in 1953 and kept the Peeps line.

Who was nicknamed the 'Father of Peeps' for mechanising their production?

Bob Born, son of founder Sam Born, devised the machine that replaced hand-forming of the chicks in 1954; he died in 2023 at 98.

How many Peeps did Matt Stonie eat in five minutes to win the 2017 eating contest?

Matt Stonie downed 255 Peeps in five minutes at the 2017 World Peeps Eating Championship, held outside the Peeps & Company store at National Harbor, Maryland.

In US television ads, what sound does the Cadbury Bunny make?

The Cadbury Bunny clucks like a chicken in the Cadbury Creme Egg commercials that began in the 1980s with the tagline 'Nobunny knows Easter better than Cadbury'.

Which animal won Hershey's 2021 Cadbury Bunny tryouts from over 12,000 entries?

Betty the frog joined a line of non-rabbit winners in the annual contest, which puts bunny ears on other pets for the Easter ad.

Kinder Surprise, launched in 1974, copied an Easter tradition from which country?

Italian adults give children large chocolate eggs with toys inside; Ferrero shrank the idea and has sold some 30 billion eggs since.

Irving Berlin's 'Easter Parade' reused a 1917 melody he had written under what title?

'Smile and Show Your Dimple' (1917) was a cheer-up song for a girl whose man had gone to fight in the First World War; Berlin gave the tune new lyrics as 'Easter Parade' in 1933.

'Easter Parade' was first sung on Broadway in which 1933 revue?

'As Thousands Cheer' (1933) strung its numbers on newspaper headlines; Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb introduced 'Easter Parade' there, and Bing Crosby sang it in Holiday Inn in 1942.

New York's Easter parade that inspired Berlin's song proceeds along which street?

The parade strolls along Fifth Avenue from St. Patrick's Cathedral; during the Depression a new or refurbished hat for it was an affordable luxury.

The giant Vegreville pysanka in Alberta was dedicated to the 1975 centennial of what?

Federal centennial funding required the egg to honour the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, founded in 1873 as the North-West Mounted Police; the 31-foot aluminium egg turns in the wind like a weather vane.

The Bieberbach Easter fountain set a 2001 Guinness record with how many hand-painted eggshells?

Bieberbach in Bavaria hung 11,108 hand-painted eggshells on its Easter fountain in 2001 for the Guinness record; decorated Osterbrunnen draw coachloads of visitors each spring.

The custom of dressing public wells with Easter eggs began in which German region?

The Osterbrunnen custom began in Franconian Switzerland, where the well at Aufseß was reportedly first decorated around 1909; it spread through Upper Franconia from the 1950s.