It has just been Eid, and now it is both Passover and Easter. But the world seems in a parlous state. At a time when the world is going to hell in a hand cart, hopefully this will cheer you up:

Orion’s Belt and the Rabbit

There is an old myth that transcends both the ancient world of the near and middle east and the pre-Christian west. It has been absorbed into Christian tradition and the original myth is lost to modern society. But the original myth has much to say to us about new life and resurection in the darkest days and perhaps it is worth its own retelling. It starts in the stars:

Orion is the hunter and he is set low in the sky close by Gemeni and not far from the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. He spends eternity chasing the Rabbit through the sky. Some call the Rabbit, the Hare of course. Hard to tell the difference perhaps. But the Arabic name for the constellation is Arnab, the Rabbit. And it is very clearly a Rabbit. The old backstory is that Ēostre was an Anglo-Saxon goddess derived, some say, from Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. To cut a long story short, according to legend, Ēostre once found a little bird with frozen wings, unable to fly, and she took pity on it and changed it into a rabbit. She granted this rabbit two special talents: the power to run as fast as a bird can fly, and the ability to lay eggs like a bird. By now, you might have guessed where this story is going. From “Ēostre” we get our word Easter. And Lepus the Hare is not actually a hare but is really none other than the Easter Bunny.
You can spot Orion easily from the three bright stars of his belt. There are no particularly bright stars in Lepus, instead memorise the shape and then wait for your eyes to adjust to the dark. Locate Orion and look below his feet, the rabbit will come leaping out at you.

If you have the patience: Here is that myth retold in full as part of an Easter message from NCF Secretary General, William Morris LL.D.