Are you still eating Easter candy? Ever wonder why Easter is celebrated with chocolate bunnies and egg hunts? Here’s a rundown on where each of these traditions came from.

The Easter Bunny

This ambitious rabbit delivers tons of chocolate and other sweets every Easter…or so the story goes. But why an Easter Bunny instead of an Easter Chicken or an Easter Bear? One prevailing theory argues that it’s because rabbits were commonly found in church art back in medieval times. In those days, the notoriously randy creatures were widely assumed to be capable of reproducing without doing what bunnies are very, very good at. Along with birds, rabbits became a fertility symbol and their connection to spring was further heightened by the fact that it’s their breeding season. The legend of the Easter Bunny himself dates back to at least the 18th century and it was first brought to America by German immigrants in Pennsylvania.

Easter Eggs

Decorating eggs is a pastime people have been enjoying since time immemorial. A 2012 study conducted by researchers at the University of Cambridge revealed that the practice is at least 60,000 years old. Ancient Africans once used durable ostrich egg shells as canteens and carved decorations into the sides. Early Christians in Mesopotamia began painting eggs red to memorialize the blood Jesus shed during the crucifixion and the tradition carried on through the centuries that followed. The first Easter egg hunts may have been hosted by Protestant reformer Martin Luther in the 16th century. He allegedly used the activity as a parable for Jesus’ followers finding his tomb empty following his resurrection and wondering where he had gone.

Easter Lilies

These decorative flowers are native to Japan’s Ryukyu Islands. The country has a rather small Christian population so why did the plants become linked with the holiday? It’s because Jesus was apparently a fan of lilies. Okay, not this particular species of lilies (which are called “Lilium longiflorum”) but a different type was said to have sprung up from the drops of sweat that dripped off his brow while he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Lilium longiflorum lilies grow taller and tend to be prettier than many other species. This is why they’ve been predominantly used as Easter Lilies since the 1920s. In the early ‘40s, their bulbs were still being imported from Japan. The outbreak of World War II made them rare and valuable in the United States in the years that followed.