02 May Written Submission: What does the ‘Easter Bunny’ have to do with Easter’s traditional meaning?
The Easter bunny experiment
By Nancy Adusei
Aiming to get others engaged in the Easter spirit, reporters Nancy Adusei and Rafaela Sousa dress up as live Easter bunnies; exploring student’s views on what Easter means to them. The university’s Chaplain Jonathan Sedgwick, priest-in-charge of St George the Martyr Church expresses the origin of Easter and helps to challenge the idea of Easter bunnies having anything to do with its traditional meaning.
As the Easter season near approaches this year, the Christian Union constituting within London South Bank University had successfully arranged an Easter Egg Hunt on Wednesday 16th March, 2016. This took place at the student centre where fluffy yellow chicks were hidden in secret places such as the bar area, snooker tables and other spots to give students a chance of winning free Easter eggs. In preparation for the traditional holiday, this event was well attended during the afternoon by students who participated. Many of them showed up with their gaming faces on whilst being ‘taken back’ to their old childhood days.
As it stands, there is no story in the bible about bunnies, chocolate eggs or fluffy yellow chicks. Addressing this, Father Jonathan said: “the Easter bunny like Easter eggs are signs of new life as it always appears to be creative and new. That is a very fatigue comparison with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christians believe that Jesus died for us and rose again”. As Father Jonathan positively stands from a Christian perspective, he refers to the Easter bunny as an enhancement of its traditional religious meaning. This contrasts to the majority of religious bodies in the UK and around the world who strongly believe that the Easter bunny and eggs stem from pagan roots.
A number of questions were given to a random selection of students across campus to earn a crème egg chocolate; raising the responses shared.
A question was asked on how students plan on spending their Easter holiday. Journalism student, Samantha Masters explained: “I plan on spending my Easter with family and friends, having a nice break, Easter Sundays all about relaxing and chilling out”. Whilst she understands Easter holiday to be a gifted break, Film and Media student Tani Sokoya said: “Till this day I honestly don’t know what the bunny has to do with Easter but probably just go to church, celebrate the resurrection of Christ and watch a movie”. As the two students share their different experiences with what Easter means to them gives a youthful feel on different types of ways to describe a typical student’s holiday break during this current season.
Commercial management student, Chavdar Genov stated: “I’m fully aware of Easter being time when the son of God is truly revealed from being resurrected, however, the bunny side of it taps into that as it is a representation of rebirth and a huge excitement for children”. The majority of students that were interviewed believed in keeping the Easter bunny and Easter’s traditional meaning closely linked to look into both sides rather than one for what Easter is all about.
