Susan Birbeck, age 10, of Ottawa, Ont., Canada, for her question:

HOW DID THE MYTH OF THE EASTER BUNNY GET STARTED?

Our Easter celebrations date back to long before the Christian Era. In those olden days, it was the spring festival when farming peoples celebrated the return of buds and blossoms and the birth of new animals. In almost all countries, eggs were the festive food. But surely every farm child knows that rabbits bear baby bunnies. Certainly they do not lay eggs, especially chicken eggs.

The people of Germany have their own story to explain the myth of the egg laying Easter bunny. They say it started long ago, during a period of famine, when a poor mother hid a few chicken eggs in the straw for her children to find on Easter morning. Apparently a rabbit also hid himself in the straw  and popped out just as the eggs were found. Naturally the children added that bunny to their future Easter celebrations, and in time the Easter bunny became fashionable around the world.