Today I learned the Easter Bunny was introduced to the United States in the 18th Century by German settlers who referred to it as "Osterhas." Where they got the idea isn't exactly clear, but it presumably came from the rabbit being a symbol of spring and fertility. How the bunny started popping out eggs remains a mystery. The German settlers told the other children frolicking about the Pennsylvania Dutch countryside that they should build brightly colored nests out of caps and bonnets in secluded areas of their homes and, if they had been very good, the Osterhas would lay brightly colored eggs in the nest. The kiddos ate this up, apparently, and over the years the nest became the modern Easter basket.
Catholics were forbidden from eating eggs during Lent, which is the reason for the mass egg consumption on Easter. The origins of coloring the eggs have been lost in history, though it is thought the tradition is tied to the colorful flowers that come with spring, as the original method for tinting the shells was by boiling the eggs in water with flowers. Many early eggs were dyed red as a tribute to the sacrifice of Christ, but green was also a common color in recognition of the beginning of Spring.
Extra Factoid: Australia has adapted its own version of the Easter Bunny: The Easter Bilby. A Bilby is an endangered marsupial native to Australia that looks something like an inbred opossum crossed with a kangaroo rat. The first occurance of the Easter Bilby is supposedly from a children's story written in 1968 by Rose-Marie Dusting, but Rose-Marie was nine years old at the time and barely remembers writing the story, which was sent to her later by a nun from her old school. The Easter Bilby became more prominent in 1991 when The Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia latched on to the idea to raise awareness for the homely marsupial and the damage that feral rabbits had done to the Australian ecosystem.
