Alexander the Great (Rabbit)

I used to love Easter, but these days I don't do much to celebrate it. No ham or lamb (I'm not much of a meat-eater) and no family outings. This year, I decorated the holiday tree with eggs and thought I'd share an excerpt or two from a wonderful book I enjoyed as a child. 

On the day they are born, twin siblings Penny and Peter each receive a small seven-pointed silver star on their temples during a ceremony led by a giant gray rabbit named Alexander, who promises to return for them in seven years. On the twins' seventh birthday, Alexander appears and takes them to a magical world known as the Traumwald, where everything is alive, fairies use spider webs to rock their babies to sleep, all the animals can speak and under every toadstool is a sleeping elf.

Early on in the story:

Peter looked toward the house next door. "Shall we stop by and take Mary Louise with us?" he asked. 
Alexander shook his head. "No." 
"Why?" asked Peter, though he didn't care much, one way or the other. 
"She is not a Hoogle."
"Are we Hoogles?" asked Penny. 
"Certainly." 
Penny wriggled with satisfaction. "It's important, being a Hoogle?" she inquired, to make sure. 
"It is the only important thing in the world," said Alexander.

The Hoogles and Alexander by Dorothy Langley (1948) Illustrated by Cecil Smith

Later:


Penny was in ecstasies over a baby elf made of delicate white cake, with little round wings of blue spun sugar. Peter hesitated a long time between a flight of gorgeous spun-sugar butterflies and a large nest of candied lemon peel, containing a plum-cake mother bird and four white sugar eggs.

They looked back as they reached the gate. The hedgehog was calling the kittens to supper. One by one they leaped from their branches and scampered to him. He set a large pan of fresh cream before them and settled back in his wicker chair, watching them benevolently as they eagerly lapped it.
"I never thought I'd see a pussy willow lap milk," laughed Penny. "Or a hedgehog bake cake," chuckled Peter. "The Traumwald is a great place." 
Alexander inclined his head gravely. "It is greater than you will know for many a year," he said.
Again the twins did not quite understand him. But when Alexander spoke in that tone of deep gravity, they never asked questions. Both of them liked it; to Peter it always brought thoughts of distant excitement, like the roll of drums and the crying of fife and bugle; while to Penny it carried the fragrance of happy dreams and the flutter of unseen wings. That the Traumwald was great neither of them thought of doubting for a moment; but they both felt that not a whit less great, in his inscrutable way, was the proud and stately rabbit who walked at their side.
 

The Hare, because it was prized as a hunting quarry, was seen as the epitome of the hunted creature that could survive only by prolific breeding. Aristotle, Pliny and Claudius Aelianus all described the Rabbit as one of the most fertile of all animals. It thus became a symbol of vitality, sexual desire and fertility. The Hare was connected to Aphrodite, goddess of love, and was thought to be a sign of good luck. 

(Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)