Where Did the Easter Bunny Come From? Ask This Dead German Scientist

Depending on the age of the observer, Easter either celebrates the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or the miracle of a bipedal rabbit hatching and hiding a litter of chocolate eggs in the nooks and crannies of your home.

Where did the Easter Bunny come from, and how did the floppy-eared animal get his fuzzy tail wrapped up in one of Christianity’s holiest days? Egg-bearing rabbits, as you can imagine, appear nowhere in the New Testament. But they do — weirdly enough — appear in scientific literature.

You can see the first recorded mention of the Easter Bunny in a collection of medical essays published in Germany in 1682. According to The Royal Society, one of the odder essays in this collection is a 16-page dissertation on Easter eggs, written by a young German doctor and theology buff named Johannes Richier. Read more.