Easter brings joy to children with the traditional egg hunt. Your child may have already asked you how a rabbit laying eggs gained prominence on the day of Easter, which is the day of the resurrection of Jesus.
Now that’s a clever question. We do know that eggs mean new life and symbolize the rebirth of Jesus. But why rabbits are associated with this day is clouded in mystery.
But there are many tales of this origin. So, we bring those stories along with the origin of Easter in this post titled “Easter Story For Children.”
15 Easter Stories For Children
Easter Origination
The following key events speak of how Easter traditions began:
1. The Last Supper
Jesus Christ called his disciples for a meal on the first day of Passover. During the meal, He broke the bread, said it symbolized His body, and distributed it to His disciples. He also distributed wine calling it His blood, and that the bread and wine would purify them from their sins. Before the meal ended, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples to denote that they should be nice to fellow beings.
2. Judas Betrays Jesus
This key event led to Jesus’s death by crucifixion. It follows the betrayal brought forth by Judas. All the Gospels describe several reasons for this betrayal, but there was a mention of Jesus’s eventual death in all the stories. Jesus predicted that one of His disciples would betray him during The Last Supper. As predicted by The Lord, Judas formed an ally with the Roman authorities.
Knowing that Jesus and His disciples would be visiting a garden near Jerusalem, Judas took the Roman authorities there for His arrest. Judas pointed out who Jesus was with a kiss and tried to hide his treachery against the Lord. But Jesus knew he was being betrayed through this kiss. He also knew that His crucifixion followed and that it would be needed to forgive the sins of His followers.
3. Crucifixion Of Jesus
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the greatest sacrifice ever made for love. The authorities who were seldom jealous of the kind acts of Jesus decided to crucify Him for His claim on being the King of the Jews. They took Him to a place called The Calvary, meaning “where the skull is.” There, on a cross, Jesus was nailed. When Jesus breathed His last, there was an earthquake, and the temples tore apart. This was how Jesus Christ sacrificed His life to atone for the people’s sins on this earth.
4. Resurrection Of Jesus
This is the resurrection story of Jesus Christ. After the crucifixion of Jesus, His body was placed in a tomb, and a large rock was placed across the entrance. Three days after His death, on Sunday morning, Jesus rose again, confirming His disciple’s faith in Him that death wasn’t the end. He rose to affirm the world that His death was a way of atonement, reconciliation, and salvation. Thus, the resurrection of Jesus formed the basis for Easter, signifying rebirth and new life.
Other Easter Stories
These are the stories about faith in Jesus. We also have listed a few Christian stories, folktales, and fictional tales about the Easter Bunny and rabbits.
5. The Loveliest Rose In The World by Hans Christian Andersen
There was once a queen in ancient times who had the loveliest rose garden. One day, the queen fell sick. A wise man then said that only the most beautiful rose radiating love could save her life.
Sorrow dwelled in the village as its folks struggled to find the loveliest rose to save their queen’s life. Realizing that the rose was symbolic, the villagers were perplexed. But the queen’s son brought the loveliest rose to the queen. It was a Bible and the love radiated by Jesus was the rose that saved her life.
6. Ragman by Walter Wangerin, Jr.
A man was walking by the streets on a Friday when he saw a Ragman carrying fresh rags in a barrow. As the Ragman walked, he exchanged the handkerchief of a sobbing woman, a blood-filled bandage of a wounded girl, a jacket of a disabled man, and a blanket of a drunk man with fresh, and clean rags. Surprisingly, the pain of all those sufferers transferred to the Ragman along with their clothes. Shortly after, Ragman buried Himself and died.
This sacrifice of the Ragman saddened the man who followed Him. But the following Sunday, the Ragman rose again, and then the man realized that the Ragman was Christ Himself.
7. The Tale Of Three Trees – a traditional folk tale
This is a hopeful story. There were once three trees on a mountain. The first wished to become a treasure chest, the second a large ship, and the third a pointer towards God. Unfortunately, the three trees were cut to become a manger, a boat, and a few beams, respectively. Years passed, their dreams were forgotten but not unfulfilled.
Finally, the first tree cradled baby Jesus; the second carried Him as He stopped a storm, and the third became The Cross that reminded people of The Lord every time they looked upon it. Thus, the tale of three trees ends with their dreams fulfilled.
8. The Easter Donkey by Ann Lovato
There lived a boy named Nun on the outside of Bethany. He had a donkey. The donkey knew that Nun thought he was special and believed him. One day two old men borrowed the donkey; and one of them was Jesus. The donkey smiled at Nun because now he understood why it was so special.
9. What Was In Jeremy’s Egg? by Ida Mae Kempel
Jeremy Forrester was a special child. His teacher Doris Miller wanted to expel him from school. During Easter time, she gave her students an assignment to bring a symbol of life inside the egg.
Every student brought back something that resembled life except for Jeremy; his egg was empty. When questioned, he said the empty egg symbolized Jesus’ tomb as found on Sunday morning: it symbolized rebirth. Doris gasped as she took pride in her patience.
10. The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
A selfish Giant prevented children from playing in his garden. Come spring, birds sang, and trees blossomed everywhere except in the garden of the selfish giant. One day, the children trespassed into it. Surprisingly, the garden came alive again, and the giant realized his mistake. He even helped a boy sit on a branch.
After a few years, he was furious when the same boy was wounded. When questioned about the bully, the boy said that these were the wounds of love, and he came to take the giant to paradise. Thus, ended the story of the giant who rested in peace.
11. The Rabbit’s Trick
Once a rabbit overhears a conversation between a whale and an elephant about planning to take over the world since they are the strongest animals on the planet. The rabbit then decides to trick them as it believes in equality.
Rabbit visits the whale and the elephant, meets them individualy, and tells them a lie that its cow was stuck in a pool of mud and it needs the help of the mightiest animal on the planet. Then, it hands one end of the rope to the whale and the other to the elephant. Not knowing that they were pulling each other, the whale and the elephant are surprised by the strength of the imaginary cow on the other end. Eventually, when the tug of war leads them to each other, they get angry and embarrassed, hence dropping the plan of world dominance.
12. A Lesson Of Faith by Margaret Gatty
During its final days, a butterfly hired a nurse caterpillar to be in charge of her eggs. After her death, the unconfident caterpillar, who knew nothing about butterflies, sought the help of a lark. The lark replied that the eggs would crack to give birth to beautiful caterpillars and not a butterfly. The caterpillar laughed in disbelief at this statement. However, when the eggs cracked to reveal baby caterpillars, it instilled faith in the nurse caterpillar that it too, indeed, would turn into a butterfly one day.
13. The Easter Egg by Jan Brett
Hoppy, the rabbit, was waiting to prepare the eggs scavenged by children on Easter morning. After gathering things for the egg, Hoppy went to rest in the forest, dreaming of his perfect egg. Right at that moment, an egg from a robin’s nest tumbled to the ground. Hoppy pitied the mother and the egg; he promised robin that he would protect it. So, he lay gently on the egg, day and night, until the seasons changed.
Finally, Easter had arrived, but Hoppy didn’t have his egg ready to show to the mighty Easter Rabbit. Later, when the Easter Rabbit arrived, he told the other rabbits that the special egg was missing.
He went into the woods and came out with Hoppy. He showed, the now hatched empty robin’s eggshell and declared it the best Easter egg ever as it was made with love, selflessness, and commitment. And so, the Easter Bunny left to hide the eggs for the children to find on Easter morning along with a compassionate Hoppy by his side.
14. Why The Easter Bunny Brings Eggs: A European Folktale, adapted by Jean Warren
Once upon a time, there lived a selfish king who was gifted a magical hen that laid golden eggs. With the help of this magical hen, the king became the world’s richest man. Afraid that the hen would be stolen, the King ordered the magician to replace the magical hen with a regular hen every time somebody visited the palace. When the replacement took place, the King spotted a rabbit in place of the hen in the cage, one such time. He let it out into the forest, thinking that it accidentally got there.
The next day, the magician revealed that the hen was transformed into a rabbit for safety purposes. Thus the magical hen, now rabbit, was released into the forest. It releases colorful eggs every year during the spring.
15. The Story Of The Easter Bunny by Katherine Tegen and Sally Anne Lambert
Once upon a time, there lived an older man and woman in a village. Every year they would make chocolate eggs, cover them in a colorful wrapper, and distribute them to every child in the village on Easter morning. This old couple had a rabbit who eventually started to help them make and distribute the eggs.
Years passed by, and the couple couldn’t make the eggs anymore. So, their pet rabbit left their house and moved into the forest. Even today, the rabbit keeps up with the tradition of the old couple and delivers chocolate eggs every Easter morning. Thus, it was named The Easter Bunny.
These Easter stories for children cover the true spirit of the origins of this day and follow the preachings of Jesus. Read them to your children and help them understand the significance of Easter. If they enjoy these stories, you may have to repeat them every day at bedtime.
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Harshita is a graduate in commerce and holds a PG Diploma in Patent and Copyrights Law from NALSAR University. She has also pursued CA and has more than three years of internship experience in auditing. Her love for travelling has taken her to various parts of the world, and writing the travelogues was what brought out her love for content writing…. more
