I understand the meaning of Easter, but, where did the Easter bunny come into play?

Venerable Bede's writings also show that he derived the modern word "Easter" from the Norse Ostara or Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, to whom the month of April, and called Eostur-monath, was dedicated. This festival of spring took place around March 21 (modern calendar) when nature is in resurrection after the darkness of winter. In myths, the goddess Eastre who saved a bird whose wings were frozen from the harsh winter by turning it into a hare. This magical hare could actually lay eggs. Thus, this became a proposed origination of the Easter Bunny symbol. Prior to the Christian era, rabbits were also a symbol of fertility, aptly so for their reproductive abilities. Go here-http://www.geocities.com/starsuriel/easter/history.html

In Paganism, the first day of Spring is called after the Goddess Eostre. It celebrates the rebirth of the Earth. It is said that one of Eostre's animals was the rabbit, for its bountiful fertility which this holy day is all about. When Christianity came around, the heirachy wanting to recruit the Pagans incorporated many of the Pagan holy days and symbolms to lure them to their way of thinking.

The Easter Bunny is not a modern invention. The symbol originated with the pagan festival of Eastre. The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit. The Germans brought the symbol of the Easter rabbit to America. It was widely ignored by other Christians until shortly after the Civil War. In fact, Easter itself was not widely celebrated in America until after that time.

In reality, no one knows. While as mentioned in the first post, "Easter" was supposed by the ecclesiastical historian Bede to be the goddess after whom "Eoster Monat" (Easter Month) was named, he provided no other indications as to this goddess. This was back in the 700's, a good 100 years after England had begun to be Christianized (and Bede himself was a Monk). The next mention of any character that COULD be considered as cognate with Easter was in the 1800's. However, there is no evidence to suppose that the traditions at this late date were present back when Easter was actually worshipped as a goddess, indeed there is some debate as to if Easter as a goddess ever existed -- she doesn't fit in at all with what is known about early Anglo-Saxon religion. The symbol of the rabbit was not associated with the goddess "Easter" till in the 1900's and thus is quite likely a historical anachronism. To summarize the above, it is quite unlikely that the Easter Bunny had anything to do with an ancient pagan goddess.