Upcoming Bicycle Holy Day: Bunny on a Bike Ride

Of the many Bicycle Holy Days of Portland OR, the "Bunny on a Bike" ride is one of the more unusual. Every Easter since 2004, upwards of 100 Portlanders don Easter outfits and go for a Sunday Bike Ride. It's a very much a family-friendly event, and a super way to spend quality time with your friends or meet new people.

This year's theme is "Alice in Wonderland." The ride starts at Columbia Park in North Portland. It's an easy ride from downtown by going up Williams or Rodney to Ainsworth, then over to North Portland. Or take the Expo MAX to the Argyle stop.

If you're feeling ambitious or crafty, you can don bunny ears, wear plush outfits, and decorat your bikes with pastel trinkets. Or just find some springy clothes and come as you are.

Bunny and egg themes have been around since the 1600s, and bunnys are a symbol of fertility, and a celebration of the the transition from winter to spring. The holiday has been named "Easter" since 899 and predates the co-opting of the pagan holiday by Christianity.

In the Christian tradition, Easter is when Jesus (the founder of Christianity) was executed, thereby atoning for the sins of all humanity, then miraculously came back to life.

Yours in The Faith,
Pasture Ted

More info:
* Ride anouncements

http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Event?oid=2361415

http://www.shift2bikes.org/cal/#04-1229

* photos from past rides

http://www.redbatpress.com/bunnyonabikeride.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlecrumb/sets/72157616679424544/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm4EmFIWuTs

Excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter

The modern English term Easter is speculated to have developed from Old English word Ēastre or Ēostre or Eoaster, which itself developed prior to 899. The name refers to Eostur-monath, a month of the Germanic calendar attested by Bede as named after the goddess Ēostre of Anglo-Saxon paganism.[15] Bede notes that Eostur-monath was the equivalent to the month of April, and that feasts held in her honor during Ēostur-monath had died out by the time of his writing, replaced with the Christian custom of Easter.[16] Using comparative linguistic evidence from continental Germanic sources, the 19th century scholar Jacob Grimm proposed the existence of an equivalent form of Eostre among the pre-Christian beliefs of the continental Germanic peoples, whose name he reconstructed as Ostara.

The implications of the goddess have resulted in scholarly theories about whether or not Eostre is an invention of Bede, theories connecting Eostre with records of Germanic folk custom (including hares and eggs), and as descendant of the Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn through the etymology of her name. Grimm's reconstructed Ostara has had some influence in modern popular culture. Modern German has Ostern, but otherwise, Germanic languages have generally borrowed the form pascha, see below