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In Judaism, the rabbit is considered an unclean animal, because "though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof." [2] [note 1] This led to derogatory statements in the Christian art of the Middle Ages, and to an ambiguous interpretation of the rabbit's symbolism. The "shafan" in Hebrew has symbolic meaning.
The symbol features three hares or rabbits chasing each other in a circle. Like the triskelion, [8] the triquetra, and their antecedents (e.g., the triple spiral), the symbol of the three hares has a threefold rotational symmetry. Each of the ears is shared by two hares, so that only three ears are shown.
A study in 2004 followed the history and migration of a symbolic image of three hares with conjoined ears. In this image, three hares are seen chasing each other in a circle with their heads near its centre. While each of the animals appears to have two ears, only three ears are depicted.
The idea of an egg-giving hare went to the U.S. in the 18th century. Protestant German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children about the " Osterhase " (sometimes spelled " Oschter Haws " [21]). Hase means "hare", not rabbit, and in Northwest European folklore the "Easter Bunny" indeed is a hare.
Rabbits also appear in Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean mythology, though rabbits are a relatively new introduction to some of these regions. In Chinese folklore, rabbits accompany Chang'e on the Moon, [190] and the moon rabbit is a prominent symbol in the Mid-Autumn Festival. [191]
The Cape hare was often represented as the head of Unut. Unut is commonly portrayed as a woman with the head of the desert or Cape hare, Lepus capensis of Egypt. The Egyptians regarded the hare as an example of swiftness, alertness, and keen senses, but the animal’s form was also taken by certain underworld deities. [3]
The hare is an animal with broad, centuries-old symbolic meaning in many religions. In Greek mythology it was associated with the love goddess Aphrodite, to the Romans and Germanic tribes it was a symbol of fertility, and in Christianity it came to be connected with the Resurrection.
The March Hare (called Haigha in Through the Looking-Glass) is a character most famous for appearing in the tea party scene in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The main character, Alice , hypothesizes,