But it might come as a surprise that the popular symbols had their beginnings in the Pennsylvania German community.
The Easter rabbit or “Oschter Haws” was introduced in 18th century by local immigrants from the Palatinate region of Germany, says Patrick Donmoyer of the Pennsylvania German Heritage Center at Kutztown University which celebrates Easter on the Farm April 12.
Children would lay out their hat in a secluded place and hope they had been good enough to warrant a visit from the Oschter Haws who would leave eggs or candy. Donmoyer says the tradition was that the rabbit actually laid the eggs and bakes goods depicting a rabbit laying an egg was popular.
A pen-and-ink sketch on display in a folk art museum in Williamsburg is the earliest know American picture of the Easter bunny and the image, dated to about 1810, is believed to have come from Schuylkill County.
Donmoyer says the colored eggs children search for on Easter morning came from the colored and scratched eggs brought over by Germans.
The German egg-scratching is similar to Pysanky, which came from Germany’s neighbor, Poland, Ukraine and other Slavic countries.
“People think of it as Polish but it also was done in Germany,” Donmoyer says. “It is well documented that the Germans would dye eggs and then scratch them to make designs, although the German eggs are more geometric and not as elaborate as Pysanky.”
At the free event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., children will be able to scratch their own eggs under the direction of artist Colleen McCully, who has dyed the eggs in the traditional way - blue with cabbage leaves or rusty red with onion skins.
There won’t be any sign of the Oschter Haws, but there will be regular bunnies and other farm animals at a petting zoo.
The event celebrates the Easter traditions of the Pennsylvania Germans and in addition to egg-scratching, families can try samples of dandelion salad with hot bacon dressing.
Children ages 6 months to 10 years-old can join in an Easter egg hunt at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
Learn what it was like to be a student in the 1870s at the Freyberger One Room Schoolhouse and hear traditional music in Pennsylvania German dialect by Mike Hertzog & The Blue Mountain Trio and yodeling by Betty Naftzinger, who will teach kids to yodel and sing in dilaect. Keith Brintzenhoff also will present two half-hour children’s traditional music performances. Keith has performed at the Kutztown Folk Festival for many years and is one of the founders of the Lyon’s Fiddle Festival. There will also be a book signing and reading by Dori Hoch, author of the children’s storybook “Pearl of Richmond School” about a third grade student at a one-room schoolhouse set in the 1930's in rural America.
There will be folk life demonstrations including the making of redware pottery, a blacksmith, hand hewn logs, hearth cooking and basket weaving, as well as crafts in the Children's Tent and pot-bellied pigs who perform tricks provided by Puddin’ Heartland 1st pig rescue, and pony rides by Wannamaker Ranch.
The Old Time Plow Boys will have their tractors and antique farm equipment on display, and they'll be giving wagon rides around the Sharadin Farmstead and will be cooking up something tasty to eat in the Plow Boys Kitchen.
Info: 610-683-1589 or www.kutztown.edu/pgchcRead/Post Comment