What German Easter custom is known as the Easter hare, or Osterhase?

The German Easter custom known as the Osterhase is the origin of the Easter Bunny tradition.

The Osterhase, literally the Easter hare, was described as a creature that brought or hid colored eggs for children. German immigrants helped carry this custom to Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century, where the hare became increasingly associated with children’s Easter celebrations.

In North America, the hare gradually became a rabbit in popular culture. Rabbits and hares were already linked with fertility and spring because of their noticeable reproductive capacity and appearance during the spring season. Confectioners, greeting-card publishers, and retailers later spread the bunny as a widely recognizable Easter symbol.

The Easter Bunny is a folklore figure rather than a biblical character. This distinction is sometimes overlooked because the bunny appears alongside Christian Easter observances, egg hunts, chocolate eggs, and spring decorations. Different countries use related animals or local gift-bringing figures instead.