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Title: Mall bunnies hunt for neutral names
Source:
Palm Beach Post
URL Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search ... 2005/03/11/s3b_bunny_0306.html
Published: Mar 11, 2005
Author: Tim O'Meilia
Post Date: 2005-03-11 23:56:24 by 1776
Keywords: bunnies, neutral, names
Views: 967
Comments: 20
The Easter Bunny is a vanishing breed. Not that there's a shortage of 6-foot white rabbits carrying baskets of colored eggs. It's just that Mr. Shopping Mall Bunny is becoming more politically correct. The bunny at The Gardens mall Easter egg hunt last weekend — oops, make that just plain "egg hunt" — was called Garden Bunny. "The name just complemented The Gardens of the Palm Beaches," mall Marketing Director Jeannie Roberts said. Saturday, Baxter the Bunny is available for photos at the Mall at Wellington Green. At Town Center in Boca Raton, Peter Rabbit will hand out goodies and pose for pictures. "Because we're such a multicultural community, it's good just to remain neutral," mall General Manager Sam Hosen said. Some stick with tradition. The Easter Bunny still appears at the Boynton Beach Mall and at Treasure Coast Square in Jensen Beach. The Palm Beach Mall has no bunny at all. "I suppose the name Easter Bunny is fairly unusual. We have Easter eggs too," Boynton Beach Mall Manager Andrea Horne said. "I know it's probably not the popular thing to call it." The rabbit's name seems to have little effect on shopping habits. "I'm not really sure how religious the bunny is," The Gardens' Roberts said. She's right. The origin of the Easter Bunny dates to the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility, Oestre or Eastre, whose mythical companion was the ultimate symbol of fertility, the hare. Over the centuries the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus became entwined with the pagan celebration of the annual rebirth of life each spring. German immigrants brought the Easter rabbit across the Atlantic in the late 1800s, and he's become the secular symbol of the Easter season. The Garden Bunny may be as accurate as any. Said Roberts: "The name has always worked for us."
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#1. To: christine, robin, zipporah (#0)
Good heavens..
Could you EVER in your wildest imaginings have foreseen such a day?
But isn't the Easter bunny a pagan symbol to begin with? Doesn't it go with the eggs and the flowers as symbols of fertility and the rebirth of the year? Just as the death symbols used on halloween are the celtic symbols for the death of the year on the fall equinox. Christmas is a celebration to light up the winter solstice with lights and green plants. I thought all of these holidays were originally pagan holidays that got christianized around 1000.
That's my understanding, also. I've been told that Constantine, for whatever reason (an effort to "Christianize" the Romans, for political purposes, whatever) melded Pagan celebrations with Christian events. Christmas is the most notable of these, Easter counts also.. I believe Halloween Is a bona-fied pagan holliday, but it features no Christian association like the others. It's a stupid idea, but good people have come forward and done good things with it. Used them for charitable purposes, etc.. so it's not a complete loss. OTOH, the greedy & materialistic among us are showcased during Christmas also. Every time I read about people fighing in stores over some stupid toy I wish we'd just ditch the whole thing, or remove the gift giving part.
Sacre Bleu! The next thing ya know they'll be outlawing Peeps!
That's hilarious in an outrageous sort of way. The Easter Bunny has offended a great many deeply religious Christians as well. It shows the amazing ignorance of those that hate us and seek to destroy our culture and religion.
Hahahah! Kill the Peeps! Peeps are Subversive! Round them up and sqaush them!
You have a PM. &;-P
There was a really good book out in about 1997 about the history of Christmas. It's actually a much more recent holiday than most people realize. Christmass was a nothern European holiday that took place when the beer and wine put up for the year was just becoming drinkable and there was plenty of fresh meat from the fall slaughter. It was too dark and cold to work at that time of year so the festival was held. The Yule log was burned to mark the duration. Nobody had to do anything while it smoldered. By the way, "Y" is the ruin for the "th" sound as in "Ye Old ...", substituting this, you can see the nordic origin of the word. People dis the Puritans for trying to ban the celebration of Christmas, but what they were trying to ban was something other than we know. Apparently Christmas was a very minor religious holiday then and it mostly consisted of roving drunks trick or treating for drinks. They had begun to set fire to the houses of people who wouldn't give them booze. Apparently it remained a drunken festival until the mid 1800s when the first serious attempts to Christianize it were made. One book came out the it the 1830s that romanticised the mannor house Christmas and painted it as a children's holiday. Apparently this was very influential. The Victorians continued to work the children's angle. There were many reports in the newspaper at this time for a need to quiet the revelers in the lower class London districts. The child and religious aspects were played up to help quiet the drunks. According to the book, what we think of as Christmas was actually invented in the Victorian era. This is probably why so many of our Christmas icons are based on Victorian Londoners. Santa Clause came even later than this. The Night before Christmas is one of the first mentions. If you read the poem carefully, you can see that the santa in it doesn't conform to the modern image. He is dressed all in fur and the sled doesn't fly, it blows up the side of the house like dry leaves. The "Laying the finger aside of his nose" is a Victorian gesture that means "this joke is just between you and me". The long stemmed clay pipe marks Santa as a working class person. Our modern image of Santa seems to come mostly from coca cola ads in the 1930s.
Sounds multicultural to me, what's the problem?
Exactly. How ironic is it that "unbelievers" are actually depaganizing an already paganized "Christianity"?
Isn't it funny how the same people who constantly spout nonsense about being "inclusive" or whatever are only offended by Christianity as a religion and middle/working class Americans as a culture. This is one they can't even turn into a black/white racial issue as I know plenty of black people that celebrate Easter.
:)
It has nothing to do with a racial issue whatsever.. the black community is overwhelmingly Christian.
Hahahah! Don't laugh. It could happen!
From the CIA Fact Book: Religions: Definition Field Listing So according to the CIA about 77% of Americans are Christian.
It's a culture war kind of issue issue, although I've come to despise that term as well since FOX started using it. Commies/neocons always try to smear dissent to NWO as racist.
CANNIBAL TRIBE FROM PAPUA NEW GUINEA TO REPLACE KENNEDYS IN HYANNISPORT COMPOUND!
Arriving by Cruise Ship with a declining passenger list.
Shopping malls told that Christian-related "Easter" Bunny is offensive in "multicultural" America
#2. To: 1776 (#1)
"Because we're such a multicultural community, it's good just to remain neutral," mall General Manager Sam Hosen said.
#3. To: Zipporah (#2)
America is was a Christian nation but the way things are going proves these Judeo-Christians are fully under the control of their masters.
#4. To: 1776 (#0)
#5. To: crack monkey (#4)
#6. To: Samuel Gray (#0)
#7. To: 1776, Zipporah (#1)
Shopping malls told that Christian-related "Easter" Bunny is offensive in "multicultural" America
#8. To: 2Trievers (#6)
#9. To: robin (#8)
#10. To: Jhoffa_ (#5)
#11. To: 1776 (#0)
German immigrants brought the Easter rabbit across the Atlantic in the late 1800s, and he's become the secular symbol of the Easter season.
#12. To: crack monkey (#4)
But isn't the Easter bunny a pagan symbol to begin with? Doesn't it go with the eggs and the flowers as symbols of fertility and the rebirth of the year?
#13. To: Arator (#12)
#14. To: IRISH BANNED FROM St PATRICKS DAY PARADE (#12)
#15. To: Dakmar (#13)
Isn't it funny how the same people who constantly spout nonsense about being "inclusive" or whatever are only offended by Christianity as a religion and middle/working class Americans as a culture. This is one they can't even turn into a black/white racial issue as I know plenty of black people that celebrate Easter.
#16. To: Dakmar (#14)
IRISH BANNED FROM St PATRICKS DAY PARADE
#17. To: Dakmar, ALL (#13)
Protestant 52%, Roman Catholic 24%, Mormon 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 1%, other 10%,
none 10% (2002 est.)
#18. To: Zipporah (#15)
#19. To: robin (#16)
#20. To: Dakmar (#19)
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