The History Behind 11 Iconic Easter Traditions

On Easter Sunday, many of us find ourselves hunting for hidden plastic eggs or munching on the ears of chocolate bunnies. But why do we engage in these peculiar customs? The answer lies in ancient pagan rituals and enduring superstitions. Here are the fascinating origins behind 11 of the most beloved Easter traditions.

1. Decorating Easter Eggs

The custom of adorned eggs—ranging from chicken to ostrich eggs—can be traced back to ancient pagan times. Eggs have long been symbols of new life and renewal, making them a natural fit for the celebration of spring and growth. It’s believed that people would color eggs to mark the season’s change and exchange them as gifts among friends and family.

With the rise of Christianity, this tradition was likely woven into the religious observance of Easter. Some stories suggest that either Mary or Mary Magdalene may have sparked our modern-day egg-dying habits. One legend claims that Mary carried eggs to Jesus’s crucifixion, where they were stained red by his blood. Another version tells of Mary Magdalene, who, upon visiting Jesus’s tomb three days after his death, found the eggs she had brought with her turned red when the stone was rolled away and the tomb was discovered empty.

2. The Legend of the Easter Bunny

At first glance, it's puzzling to understand what a large rabbit has to do with a religious holiday. But according to Time, the custom can be traced back to ancient pagan traditions. They worshipped a fertility goddess named Eostre, and as you might remember, rabbits are often associated with fertility. It's believed that German settlers introduced the tradition of the egg-laying hare, known as Osterhase, to America in the 1700s.

3. The Mystery of Hollow Chocolate Bunnies

Now that we understand the connection between Easter and rabbits, the sight of little chocolate leporidae actually starts to make sense. But why are so many of these bunnies hollow inside? It turns out, it’s not just to teach kids early lessons in disappointment. According to R.M. Palmer, one of the oldest chocolate bunny manufacturers in the U.S., the hollow design is really for the sake of your teeth. "If you had a larger-size bunny and it was solid chocolate, it would be like a brick; you’d be breaking teeth," explained Mark Schlott, executive vice-president of operations, to Smithsonian in 2010.

Of course, there’s also the element of surprise—chocolatiers can craft a bigger, more visually impressive bunny at an affordable price if it’s hollow.

4. Easter Baskets

Take a close look at an Easter basket, especially one packed with fake shredded grass, and you’ll easily spot its origins as a nest. Remember the German Osterhase tradition? There’s more to the story. To entice the mythical bunny to visit their homes, children would create nests for it to come and lay its colorful eggs. Over time, likely to manage the mess, these nests transformed into baskets.

5. Hot Cross Buns

Much like the Easter bunny and eggs, it’s hard to say exactly when people began baking hot cross buns—sweet rolls filled with raisins or currants and marked with a cross on top—during the week before Easter Sunday. The tradition is believed to have begun in the 12th century, with a monk who was inspired to mark his rolls to honor Good Friday.

The earliest written mention of hot cross buns comes from an issue of Poor Robin’s Almanac from the 1730s: "Good Friday comes this Month, the old woman runs, With one or two a Penny, hot cross Bunns [sic]."

6. Easter Fashion Parades

There’s an old superstition that wearing brand-new clothes on Easter brings good fortune for the entire year. While you could tie this belief to themes of renewal and rebirth, it mostly sounds like a good excuse to go shopping. Either way, new stylish outfits deserve more than just a quick appearance during Easter services. So, in the mid-1800s, New Yorkers started organizing little post-church fashion shows as they left their Fifth Avenue churches. The tradition lives on today, though the definition of "finery" seems to have expanded somewhat.

7. Sunrise Services

The tale goes that Mary arrived at Jesus’s tomb at dawn on Easter morning to find it empty. To commemorate this moment, many churches hold sunrise services, so congregants can experience the event in a similar way. The earliest documented sunrise service took place in 1732 in Saxony (now part of Germany), organized by a group of young men. By the following year, the entire congregation joined in, and soon, the custom spread across the country. By 1773, sunrise services reached the U.S.—the first one being held in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

8. Easter Ham

Believe it or not, that savory ham gracing your Easter dinner table has its roots in ancient pagan rituals dedicated to spring and the goddess Eostre. The custom dates back to at least 6th-century Germany, according to Bruce Kraig, founder of the Culinary Historians of Chicago. Hunters often slaughtered hogs in the fall and left them to cure over the winter. By spring, pork was one of the few meats ready for the season’s celebrations. As with many other pagan customs, Christianity adapted the practice to fit its own traditions as it spread.

9. Good Friday Kites

If you find yourself in Bermuda on Good Friday, you might be amazed to see a sky filled with countless kites. As local legend goes, a teacher once used a kite to demonstrate to her students how Jesus ascended into heaven. The analogy caught on quickly, and today, flying a simple kite made of tissue paper and sticks remains a vibrant tradition.

10. Egg Knocking

Also known as egg tapping or egg jarping, egg knocking is a game where two players tap the pointed ends of their eggs against each other to see which one cracks and which one remains unbroken. This custom dates back to medieval Europe, but in modern-day egg knocking, Marksville, Louisiana is unbeatable. Since 1956, families in the town have gathered at the courthouse square on Easter Sunday to compete with their eggs. Some even start preparing months in advance, feeding their chickens special diets in hopes of getting sturdier eggs.

11. Osterbrunnen

The German tradition of Osterbrunnen—decorating public wells and fountains with intricate greenery and Easter egg ornaments—originated only about a century ago. Legend has it that German villagers sought to honor both Easter and the life-giving gift of water, which symbolizes renewal and rebirth. Neighboring villages began competing to see who could create the most elaborate fountains, and by 1980, around 200 villages were taking part in the festivities. The tradition has even crossed the Atlantic—Frankenmuth, a Bavarian-style town in Michigan, now celebrates Osterbrunnen each Easter season.

This article was originally published in 2017 and has been updated for 2022.