<P> The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit bringing Easter eggs . Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behaviour at the start of the season of Eastertide . The Easter Bunny is sometimes depicted with clothes . In legend, the creature carries colored eggs in his basket, candy, and sometimes also toys to the homes of children, and as such shows similarities to Santa Claus or the Christkind, as they both bring gifts to children on the night before their respective holidays . The custom was first mentioned in Georg Franck von Franckenau's De ovis paschalibus (' About Easter Eggs') in 1682, referring to a German tradition of an Easter Hare bringing Easter eggs for the children . </P> <P> The hare was a popular motif in medieval church art . In ancient times, it was widely believed (as by Pliny, Plutarch, Philostratus, and Aelian) that the hare was a hermaphrodite . The idea that a hare could reproduce without loss of virginity led to an association with the Virgin Mary, with hares sometimes occurring in illuminated manuscripts and Northern European paintings of the Virgin and Christ Child . It may also have been associated with the Holy Trinity, as in the three hares motif . Eggs, like rabbits and hares, are fertility symbols of antiquity . Since birds lay eggs and rabbits and hares give birth to large litters in the early spring, these became symbols of the rising fertility of the earth at the Vernal Equinox . </P>

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