Showing posts with label easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easter. Show all posts

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Blood Sucking Bunnies and Cruelty to Peeps


When I was in grade school, (I think in 3rd or 4th grade) something I looked forward to every day after recess was our teacher reading a chapter of the book Bunnicula to us. Do you guys remember Bunnicula? I'm guessing that if you are more of less my age and reading this blog, you were a fan of these books. :) For those who don't know about the Bunnicula character, he was a vampire rabbit. Well, sort of a vegetarian vampire who would suck the juices out of vegetables. I remember something about him draining a lettuce head. I also remember the title of my favorite Bunnicula book, "The Celery Stalks at Midnight."

I was trying to think of something Easter related that I could blog about today. I was feeling pretty positive, so I didn't want to talk about anything too dark. Bunnicula came to mind, since he's a rabbit and something I remember fondly from my childhood. 

Oh, and you know what else I remember from my childhood? Experimenting on Peeps! I wasn't really big on eating them, so it was a lot more fun to stick them in the microwave and stretch parts of them out with toothpicks. If you were the same kind of kid as I was, you might enjoy this:

Peep Experiments

Be sure to look at the "Risk Analysis" section.




Oh, and I have to share some of my favorite horror themed 30 Second Bunnies clips! For those who don't know, these are 30 second parodies of movies that are acted out by cartoon bunnies. I picked the bunny versions of what are, in my opinion, the three scariest horror movies ever made:


The Exorcist


The Shining


The Ring


Happy Easter Everyone!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Scandinavian Easter Witches


I just learned about something cool that I had to share with Easter approaching! In Scandinavia, witches are a symbol of Easter. Their cartoon version of witches is a lot cuter than the American version, as you can see in these vintage postcards.

If you search online for "Scandinavian Easter Witches" you will find lots of great vintage illustrations. Easter witches on Scandinavian postcards are sometimes seen flying on brooms and are often accompanied by black cats and teapots.


I love the astronaut dog on this postcard!


Something funny that you'll see in a lot of these images is the witches riding on animals instead of broomsticks. Here we have a man being chased by a parade of witches riding pigs.


In this one we have a ram and a black cat.

In Sweden and parts of Finland, a mini-Halloween takes place on either the Thursday or Saturday before Easter. Little girls dress up wearing shawls and scarves on their heads and go door to door with a copper kettle looking for treats. This is a lot like our Halloween trick-or-treat day, except the kids have one choice of costume.



The tradition is said to come from the old belief that witches would fly to a German mountain the Thursday before Easter to cavort with Satan. On their way back, Swedes would light fires to scare them away, a practice honored today by the bonfires and fireworks across the land in the days leading up to Sunday.

I would also like to share a YouTube video that was made by a modern Swedish woman. It's a more in depth look at the holiday. If you have subscribed to my blog by email, you might not see this video. For some reason the videos I post in my blog aren't delivered in emails. So email subscribers, you'll have to go to my actual blog to see this!