Having both a upbringing rooted in Christian Dogma and my penchance for all things pagan....I can see both sides of the fence.
As a devote Christian the idea and symbolism of the egg was summed up by the idea of Jesus being "dead" and the burial ground being a catacomb aka cave, much like our hard shelled egg in which life can "spring" forth another enity of eternal life..Jesus rises from his catacomb after 3 days..It takes approximately 30 days to hatch an egg. The whole rabbit thing in my own teachings was summed up as secular and not of the church. Although you could stretch it to encompass the"go forth and multiply" bit.
Unfortunately I never really bought into the whole Easter Christian explaination. Here's my take on it.
Eostre aka Ostara the celebration of the vernal equinox when once again there are equal hours of night and day. Taken by some as the God and Goddess reuniting, a balance of both the Sun and Moon.
In Rome the warrior god Mars( the name sake of this month) is most potent and invoked along with the fertility goddesses. The was also the commemorated story of Cybele (Phyrgian mother goddess) and Attis in the Roman world on March 24 the day of Blood.
Greif stricken Cybele transformed the mutilated corpse of her lover into a pine tree (note: pine tree is refered to in Germanic patheons and Christmas trees) and carried her belove to her temple and after a frenzy of preist let blood her beloved was resurected. Sounds like Osris and Isis.
Stories of death and resurrection are should be regarded as metaphors for the rebirth of the natural world during the spring equinox. Hence the parallel of the Christ resurrection.
Funny thing the Easter egg ( ultimate symbol of female fertility) and even the name Easter are taken from the saxon fertility goddess Eastre (or Eostre), whose representation , the wild hare has evolved to the beloved easter bunny.
For a far more incompassing essay on the topic click here.
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