i tried to explain to odin that while easter is an important christian holiday where people celebrate the resurrection of jesus, that particular tradition didn’t have much to do with why he and all his cousins were about to run around the yard trying to find easter eggs filled with candy.

so, i rambled on about eastre, who was the teutonic goddess of dawn, spring and fertility, and how the first sunday after the first full moon succeeding the vernal equinox was also sacred to her, and this pagan holiday was given her name – eastre.

and it just so happened that eastre’s symbols were the hare and the egg, which represent fertility and rebirth, for reasons that are far too complicated to explain to a toddler. but regardless, the custom of an easter egg hunt began as a way to celebrate eostre’s egg laying hares who were believed to leave their symbolic signs of rebirth atop tall grasses and under low bushes.

i think, though, that once he discovered there was candy inside each egg that the rest of the story didn’t matter much.

maybe by next easter i’ll have a good explanation for how all this relates to the traditional easter egg roll.