The Easter Bunny made a visit to campus yesterday to give out candy and tell people about the Christian meaning of Easter.

Penn State's New Life Student Fellowship presented a three-room display yesterday in the HUB-Robeson Center of the history of Easter and how Christians celebrate the religious holiday.

John Campbell (graduate-agronomy) dressed up as the Easter Bunny and distributed candy to the about 20 people who came to the New Life Easter display.

The first of the three rooms depicted the life of Jesus Christ.

Images of artifacts pertaining to Christ's life, lists of miracles he performed, and books and handouts about his life were available.

An example of a sacred meal was also on display in the first room.

Marcus Bouchillon (sophomore-elementary education) said the meal was a religious symbol, which derives from the Jewish Seder meal.

The food consisted of grains to represent life and birth, a roasted egg to symbolize Christ's sacrifice, a bitter herb -- horseradish -- to represent sin, and lamb to depict Christ as the "Lamb of God" and his ultimate sacrifice for humankind.

Bouchillon said the four glasses of wine were necessary to complete the meal: the first representing blessing, the second representing plagues, the third representing redemption, and the fourth representing praise.

The second room was available for spectators to learn more about the crucifixion of Christ.

Books, including three different Bibles, giving three slightly different accounts of the crucifixion, as well as flyers, handouts and other resources, including ex amples of the nails used to crucify Christ, were on display.

Johnny Pons, a campus minister who has been at Penn State for 16 years, remained in the room to explain the displays and answer any questions that could be posed regarding the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

"The cross is the most recognized of all religious symbols," Pons said. "The purpose of this room is to educate people on the meaning of the cross, and also to give an overview of what Easter is truly about. We don't have all the answers; we're just telling people what we know."

The contemporary, traditional celebration of Easter stems from the pagan celebration of birth and fertility in the spring, Pons said.

The Angelican Christians named the holiday Easter after the goddess of fertility and sunrise.

Today the Easter bunny, baby chicks and eggs are symbols of life and re-birth that occur in the spring.

The third room, dedicated to the resurrection of Christ, was organized by one of the four groups of New Life members who prepared all of the displays, Josh DeFrank (sophomore-material science and engineering) said.