An excerpt from, "The Hare and the Goddess: the story of a sacred animal" by Candy Dowson, Medium, September 16, 2024:
Across Celtic, Germanic and pre-Roman cultures, the hare was a sacred and mystical animal held in deep love and honour by the indigenous tribal peoples of Europe, Britain and Ireland.
To the ancient ones, the hare represented fertility, sexuality, abundance, prosperity, good fortune, and new life — as well as violence, madness, trickery, divination, death and resurrection. The hare was considered so sacred that it was forbidden to be hunted and eaten in Britain and parts of Europe.
Because the hare has been linked with the moon for such a long time, many of the goddesses associated with it are also linked to the moon, as well as to fertility, prosperity, rebirth and war.
The idea of rabbits as a symbol of vitality, rebirth and resurrection derives from antiquity. This explains their role in connection with Easter, the resurrection of Christ. The unusual presentation in Christian iconography of a Madonna with the Christ Child playing with a white rabbit in Titian's Madonna of the Rabbit can thus be interpreted Christologically. Together with the basket of bread and wine, a symbol of the sacrificial death of Christ, the picture may be interpreted as the resurrection of Christ after death.
The phenomenon of superfetation, where embryos from different menstrual cycles are present in the uterus, results in hares and rabbits being able to give birth seemingly without having been impregnated, which caused them to be seen as symbols of virginity. Rabbits also live underground, an echo of the tomb of Christ.
Tucker Carlson speaks out against Trump’s Easter morning “truth”:
— The American Conservative (@amconmag) April 6, 2026
“This is a mockery, not just of Islam but of Christianity. To send out a tweet with the F-word on Easter morning promising the murder of civilians and then saying ‘Praise be to Allah’. We can’t support that.” pic.twitter.com/MJlmO3GAgS