Titled:   St. Paul City Office Boots Easter Bunny

A small Easter display was removed from the City Hall lobby on Wednesday out of concern that it would offend non-Christians.

Tyrone Terrill, the city's human rights director, asked that the decorations be removed. Terrill said no citizen had complained to him.

Council Member Dave Thune called it a shame.

"This has just gone too far,'' he said. "We can't celebrate spring with bunnies and fake grass?''

The council president, Kathy Lantry, said the removal wasn't about political correctness.

"As government, we have a different responsibility about advancing the cause of religion, which we are not going to do,'' she said.

Maybe they should take a few minutes to learn about the Easter Bunny:

The original Easter Bunny myth comes from a pagan holiday which was celebrated on the Vernal Equinox. According to Pagan legend, Ostara, the goddess of spring, turned a bird into a rabbit. The rabbit was supposedly able to fly as fast as the bird could fly, but it was still dissapointed that it was a rabbit and not a bird. Ostara had pity on the creature, and one day out of every year, on the Vernal Equinox, she allowed the rabbit to lay eggs like a bird. Due to the proximity of Easter and the Vernal Equinox, converted pagans continued to associate the myth with their new holiday, and the idea has been passed down ever since.

As a Christian, I find it at least mildly offensive to use an Easter Bunny in the first place. Certainly not enough to go banning a popular symbol that children enjoy. I hardly see how the display of a pagan symbol of fertility is going to offend non-Christians.

In the same manner, it always bemuses me that they often ban Christmas Trees from government sites - again a pagan tradition - to protest against establishment of Christianity.

Don't even start me on Santa, Candy Canes and all the other traditions.

Happy early Easter!