but few who attended probably knew their association with Christianity. The Easter bunny is believed to have originated in Germany long before Christianity and to have been associated with a pagan spring rite that celebrated fertility, with the hare the symbol of fertility. And Now Ruz is the ultimate spring rite, so the inclusion of bunnies makes some sense. The oddity is that a regime that complains bitterly of a “cultural invasion” and sees US cartoon characters as threatening doesn’t blanch at the appearance of the Easter bunny. For that matter, the Iranian armed forces have adopted the baseball cap as part of their uniforms.
