Spring is in the Air!

By MICHELLE CUMMINGS

Rabbits don’t lay eggs.

This fact and the springtime chill, rain and fog did not deter hundreds of tourists from around the world from flocking to see the Easter bunny Thursday.

To celebrate the upcoming holiday the Rockefeller Center Channel Gardens installed their spring plantings near the center and the bustling crowds between 49th and 50th streets in Midtown

Kids of all ages stood in awe of a 12-foot-tall Easter bunny topiary.  Thousands of white lilies were planted at the base of a revolving rabbit made of moss and ivy.

With outstretched arms the bunny exuded a contagious elation while balancing a giant egg made of colorful daisies on its nose.

Head gardener Erik Pauze and his team began to transform the passageway through Rock Center at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The work was complete by the next morning.

“I do this for the surprise,” he said. The pure joy of brightening someone’s day drives Pauze.

Pauze, 50, studied horticulture at Farmingdale State in Long Island. His love affair with plants began as a child while landscaping his French teacher’s yard.

Pauze is also the wizard behind selecting the Norway spruce Christmas tree. 

These widely cherished niceties are his humble contributions to world peace, he said.

There is no mention of chocolate, a bunny or eggs in the Bible. The exact origins of the Easter bunny tradition are unknown but they most likely derive from spring rituals where life is renewed and from the noted fecundity of rabbits.

Eggs and rabbits were ancient symbols of fertility and new life.

This all seemed irrelevant to the multicultural throngs of friends and family taking selfies.

“The instillation is intended to delight,” said Pauze.

This gesture of universal optimism is on display through April.

Photo by Michelle Cummings