Michael: Appropos of nothing in particular... but regarding
Easter:
"According to the Venerable Bede, Eostre was the Saxon version of the Germanic goddess Ostara. Her feast day was held on the full moon following the vernal equinox -- almost the identical calculation as for the Christian Easter in the west. One delightful legend associated with Eostre was that she found an injured bird on the ground one winter. To save its life, she transformed it into a hare. But "the transformation was not a complete one. The bird took the appearance of a hare but retained the ability to lay eggs...the hare would decorate these eggs and leave them as gifts to Eostre.""
Useless trivia for the day...
Mike.
Edit (for DP): From the 'What's New' page:
The Apple iPad arrived this weekend along with the Easter Bunny and chocolate eggs. Rabbits and eggs are pagan fertility symbols that have somehow become intertwined with the Christian holiday, but there was something of an appropriate irony in Apple choosing this particular weekend to launch the iPad, since it is in many ways a harbinger of things to come.