In terms of its cultural aspects however, Easter is better associated with bunnies and egg hunts, and a fun way to liven up one’s Sunday.
Enterprising chocolatiers have cashed in on this frivolous form of celebration with uniquely-shaped chocolates, undoubtedly relieved to be able to stock their shelves once again after the rush of Valentine’s Day.
But why bunnies? Why eggs? Or even Easter for that matter?
The association of eggs with Easter likely began in Mesopotamia where early Christians dyed eggs red to symbolise the blood of Jesus.
However, the practice of decorating eggs began way before that with the discovery of 60,000-year-old engraved eggs in Africa.
Eggs were cemented as part of Easter traditions once they came to symbolise Jesus’ vacant tomb.
The first chocolate Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies appeared in German and French confectionaries in the early 19th century.
Eggs have also long been a part of spring celebrations in parts of the old world as they have a symbolic link with life and rebirth.
Chinese communities are familiar with the gifting of red eggs during birthday celebrations for new-borns, and Hindu mythology states the universe began with a cosmic egg.
Then, what about the Easter Bunny?
Hares and their lagomorphic ilk are still infamous for their ability to breed voraciously and unsurprisingly became a fertility symbol with rebirth themes in ancient times.
Superstition was that hares could reproduce asexually, which drew parallels with the virgin birth of Jesus.
The Easter Bunny first hopped about as a result of German Lutherans needing a Santa-like character to gift their children with Easter eggs and chocolates.
Thus, a holiday celebrating a resurrection would have blended well with the already long-established symbols of life, rebirth and fertility.
The origin behind the name “Easter” however, remains less clear but Paganism could have been involved.
The 8th century monk, Bede, wrote of an Anglo-Saxon pagan goddess named Eostre or Ostara who had festivals dedicated to her every April.
When the British Isles were Christianised, these pagan celebrations were replaced by a Christian one, which gained the name of Easter due to its origins.
The lack of reference to Eostre elsewhere in historical sources cast doubt on Bede’s claims.
But in 1958, 2nd century inscriptions directed to the Matronae Austriahenae were found in Germany.
The discovery proved that there had indeed been worship of an Eostre-like goddess in the past.
However, Bede’s writings say nothing about hares or eggs being symbols of Eostre, an interesting absence in the only credible source on pre-Jesus Easter celebrations.
There is a theory that Eostre and the Greek goddess Aphrodite were part of a group of offshoots of an ancient goddess named Hausos.
Aphrodite coincidentally has the hare as her sacred animal, suggesting that the hare could have been affiliated with Eostre or Hausos and its sacredness was carried over to the Greek pantheon.
A supposed folk tale tells of Eostre turning a bird into an egg-laying hare, but it first appeared in the 1990s and its historicity is near non-existent.
A “fact” regarding Easter has also been circulating on Facebook and WhatsApp groups since 2013.
The claim which was started by the 19th century theologian Alexander Hislop is essentially a conspiracy theory claiming Easter was a plot by the Catholic Church to continue the worship of the ancient Babylonian goddess, Ishtar.
He based his claim on the fact that they sound similar, a basis that would cause any serious researcher to weep bitterly.
While Ishtar did indeed have a celebration on the first full moon after the spring equinox, there is no evidence that this celebration had any influence on Easter.
Hislop also claimed that eggs were sacred to Ishtar, but presented no evidence to back it up.
Whatever the case, there is never not an occasion to surround yourself with your loved ones to celebrate the sanctity of the day in church … or at home wolfing down chocolate Easter eggs by the dozens.