We went to our very first Easter Market. We chose to try out the OsternMarket in Amberg first. The German tradition of the hand painted eggs is just amazing. SO very many styles and these painters are true artists. The prices range from very cheap to so very expensive. And of course the paintings on them get better with price. There are even all sorts of eggs that they are painted on as well; ostrich, goose, and chicken. We had a lot of fun looking around at all the vendors and the types of things they would sell. We even started our Easter Egg collection to have our very own tree at home.
Here is some info I found on the Easter Bunny and why Germans LOVE Easter as much as Christmas.
The Easter Bunny & the Tale of the Eggs
From the name to the bunny, it's all German. The name Easter was first appropriated by the Christian calendar. First it was the pagan festival Ostara, celebrated on the vernal equinox, around March 21 in the Northern Hemisphere. Ostara was named for the pagan goddess of spring, Eostre.
According to legend she once saved a bird whose winds had frozen during the winter by turning it into a rabbit. Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could lay eggs. And so it became the Easter Bunny!
The bunny as a symbol for Easter is first mentioned in the writings in 16th century Germany. The first edible Easter bunnies, made of sweet pastry and sugar, were also produced in Germany in the early 18002. Around that time, children made nests of grass and set them in their parents' spring gardens for the Easter bunny to fill during the night with brightly decorated eggs.
Pennsylvania Dutch settlers brought the Easter bunny to America in the 1700s. Their children, who used their hats for bonnets to make the nests, believed that if they were well behaved, the "Oschter Haws" (literally translated Easter Hare) would fill their upturned headgear with colored eggs.
The Easter egg remains as much a tradition in German towns and cities. Children race to find the bunny's colored eggs each year.
