Easter is a movable feast; in other words, it’s one of the few floating holidays in the calendar year, because it’s based on the cycles of the moon. Easter can fall as early as March 22nd and as late as April 25th.

The word “Easter” is a traditional recognition of Eostre, the goddess of springtime and the return of the sun after the long winter. According to legend, Eostre once saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a rabbit. Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could still lay eggs, and that rabbit became our Easter Bunny. Eggs were a symbol of fertility in part because they used to be so scarce during the winter. There are records of people giving each other decorated eggs at Easter as far back as the 11th century.