Apparently Almost Everyone Eats Chocolate Easter Bunnies The Same Way
Regardless of age, many of us have experienced the pleasure of biting into a chocolate Easter bunny. Whether it's Lindt, Hershey, Dove, Ghirardelli, or the equally terrifying and cute Palmer Peter Rabbit, one thing remains the same –- how we eat a chocolate bunny.
Sure, it may sound weird at first, but think about it. You likely eat each chocolate bunny you receive the same way, starting with the ears. According to a 2022 WalletHub survey, 78% of Americans begin with the chocolate bunny's ears, either breaking or biting them off. The survey also notes that 17% start with the feet (weird), and 5% start with the tail (even weirder). At least no one's admitting to eating the face first.
But why do we even have chocolate bunnies to devour at Easter time? Without a doubt, the chocolate bunny is among the best Easter candies for your basket, but its history remains a bit, well, fuzzy. The tradition has ties to Christianity, paganism, and German folklore, so we have a lot to cover. Let's hop to it!
Traditions behind our beloved chocolate Easter bunnies
If you've ever wondered where America's chocolate Easter bunny tradition comes from, there's no easy answer. Some aspects of the tradition go back centuries, so it's difficult to find real evidence, but we can make a few educated guesses.
One theory includes a Germanic pagan goddess named Eostre who was celebrated each spring and was associated with rabbits. Similarly, others suggest that bunnies became involved in springtime festivities due to their fertile nature -– flowers blossoming, trees budding, rabbits having hundreds of bunny babies, you get the idea. At the same time, though, some churches popularized bunnies because they viewed them as being pure creatures while eggs were fertility symbols.
Whatever the case might've been, German immigrants brought the chocolate bunny concept with them to the U.S. in the 1700s. The chocolate Easter bunny reached new levels of popularity, particularly after Pennsylvanian Robert L. Strohecker built a five-foot-tall chocolate bunny in 1890. Absolutely iconic, if you ask us.