typically dye their Easter eggs red, the color of blood, in recognition of the blood of the sacrificed Christ (and, of the renewal of life in springtime). Some also use the color green, in honor of the new foliage emerging after the long-dead time of winter. The Ukrainian art of decorating eggs for Easter, known as pysanky, dates to ancient, pre-Christian times. Similar variants of this form of artwork are seen amongst other eastern and central European cultures. The idea of an egg-giving hare went to the U.S. in the 18th century. Protestant German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children about the Osterhase (sometimes spelled Oschter Haws). Hase means "hare", not rabbit, and in Northwest European folklore the "Easter Bunny" indeed is a hare. According to the legend, only good children received gifts of colored eggs in the nests that they made in their caps and bonnets before Easter. Gallery Alleged association with Ēostre In a publication from 1874 German philologist Adolf Holtzmann stated "The Easter Hare is unintelligible to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara". The connection between Easter and that goddess had been made by Jacob Grimm in his 1835 Deutsche Mythologie. This proposed association was repeated by other authors including Charles Isaac Elton and Charles J. Billson. In 1961 Christina Hole wrote, "The hare was the sacred beast of Eastre (or Ēostre), a Saxon goddess of Spring and of the dawn." The belief that Ēostre had a hare companion who became the Easter Bunny was popularized when it was presented as fact in the BBC documentary Shadow of the Hare (1993). The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore however states "... there is no shred of evidence" that hares were sacred to Ēostre, noting that Bede does not associate her with any animal. See also Easter Domestic and pet rabbits Easter Bilby Mad as a March hare Rabbits and hares in art Rabbits in culture and literature "The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs" References External links Charles J. Billson. "The Easter Hare". Folk-Lore. Vol. 3, No. 4 (December 1892). On the Bunny Trail: In Search of the Easter Bunny, Stephen Winick, Folklife Today, March 22, 2016 (Easter Fox) (in German) Bott, Adrian (2011) The modern myth of the Easter bunny, The Guardian, Sat 23 Apr 2011 1682 introductions Advertising characters Christian folklore Easter traditions German folklore Easter traditions in