WOW-Day Fairy Tale of the Month - April 2020
Easter Bunny
Russian Tale
Retold by Christa Glass
Once upon a time, there was an Easter Bunny father and an Easter Bunny mother who had seven children. As Easter approached they decided to find out which of the Easter Bunny children was the real Easter Bunny. The mother took a basket with seven eggs and asked each child to hide one of the eggs. The eldest took the golden egg, and jumped away hastily, ran through mountains and fields and when he came to the school gate he jumped so high and in such a hurry that he fell and broke his egg. This one wasn't the real Easter Bunny.
The second picked the silver egg and went off. As he scampered through the fields, he met the fox. The fox wanted to eat the egg and asked the Easter Bunny to give it to him. But the Easter Bunny wouldn't give it up. The fox responded by promising the bunny a gold coin, and got the bunny to follow him to his fox den. When they got there, the fox hid the egg, and then looked at the rabbit full of rage, baring his teeth as if he wanted to eat the rabbit. The scared rabbit ran away as fast as he could. He wasn't the real Easter Bunny either.
The third picked a red egg and set off. As he jumped through the field, he met another rabbit and thought, "I have plenty of time. I'm going to go and tussle with him a little bit." The two rabbits were scampering and rolling so madly that they crushed the egg. This one wasn't the right Easter Bunny either.
The fourth took the green Easter egg and left. As he scampered through the woods, he heard the call of a magpie sitting on a branch, calling: "Watch out! Here comes the fox." The bunny was frightened and looked around to find a hiding place for his egg. "Give me the egg and I will hide it in my nest," said the magpie. The bunny gave her the egg and, when he realized that no fox was coming, he wanted the egg back. Then the magpie replied gloatingly: "The egg is very well kept in my nest. Come and get it if you can.” This one wasn't the right Easter Bunny either.
The next one took the grey egg. As he scampered along his way, he came to a creek. When he crossed the bridge, he could see his reflection in the water. He was so impressed by his own appearance that he became careless and the egg cracked on a stone. This was also not the real Easter Bunny. The other Easter bunny picked a chocolate egg and set off. He met a squirrel, which asked him if it could taste the egg. "But this egg is for the children," said the rabbit.
But the squirrel insisted, so the rabbit let him try the egg. The squirrel liked it so much that the rabbit decided to have a small bite, as well. So they took turns until the egg was all eaten up. That wasn't the real Easter Bunny either. Now it was the turn of the youngest. He chose the blue egg. As he hopped through the fields, he met the fox, but the rabbit refused to talk to him and went his way. Later he met the rabbit, who wanted to tussle with him, but he did not stop. And when he came to the forest, he heard the magpie cry: "Watch out! The fox is coming!" The rabbit did not let himself be deceived and went on. Then he came to the stream, where he carefully crossed the bridge without looking at his reflection in the water. He also came across the squirrel; however, he did not let him taste his egg, because this egg was for the children.
And so he made it to the school gate. He jumped, not too high and not too far, and reached the other side without damaging the egg. Then he looked for a suitable hiding place in the school garden, where he carefully hid the egg.
Oh, yes, that was the real Easter Bunny.
The story comes from the ACOMI initiative, São Paulo, Brasil. ACOMI arose from an initiative of parents, teachers, and friends of Colégio Waldorf Micael de São Paulo, who started doing volunteer work in the immediate vicinity of the Brazilian school in the 1980s. They wanted to give the children of the Boa Vista district, where there are hardly any green spaces or playgrounds, more prospects and leisure activities. At ACOMI, children can take part in extracurricular activities based on Waldorf education every day. >> learn more about ACOMI
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The collection of fairy tales and poems from all over the world was created as part of the single-day campaign Waldorf-One-World-Day, WOW-Day for short. On this day, children and young people are directly and actively committed to a better world. Besides, they organize a multiplicity of special donation actions, that connect humans on all continents with one another. The proceeds are used to support children with school time, a protective community or a warm meal. >> learn more about the WOW-Day
