Origin of easter eggs and Cousin Chuy's ramblings

I was watching Good Friday news coverage of the Penitentes in the Philippines, and it brought to mind Cousin Chuy who according to family lore used to be a member in good standing. He doesn’t speak about it much; I remember when my parents used to go to the Chapel in Lyden for the Good Friday procession,
(I once had the honor of holding the Crucifix leading the procession, I was about 8 and I wish I could say it was because of my Pious nature, but the kid originally selected didn’t seem interested, didn’t listen to the head Penitente, and someone spoke to my dad and I was selected).
I once pestered him about the Order, and he would always tell me that it is very secretive, I would never get in, if I did I wouldn’t like it, and they would not tolerate my long winded diatribes about the true nature of the Bible and my demands on who the final editor was,
(I want to know what he left out, assuming it is a he, cause women weren’t allowed to read, unless they had money or a title, but I still doubt a woman would be allowed to edit the final draft, unless she was a ghost writer).
He got tired of my questions, and he was out of beer, and he said he wasn’t in the order anymore, and he left the order because they have a lot of rules, and his travels were frowned upon. His recollections of his travels were outright banned, but he told me his stories and I hope to publish them some day.
Irregardless of his standing in the community, (he relocated long ago but has a small home near the river where the fish have a strange luminescence quality under a full moon) he relayed to me a story of the origin of Easter Eggs as told to him by a German Wiccan travel guide he met in a beer garden in Weimar. I don’t remember the whole story, and frankly I thought he made it up. I did a Google search and found something similar to the story he told. It is evident Cousin Chuy mixed in Greek and German mythology but I must admit it has been 40 years since his relegation.
The story of how Easter Eggs came to be as told by Cousin Chuy.
A long time ago, back when the old days were the news days, there was the chick that went by the name of Ostara and what was unique about her was she was a Goddess who bore a resemblance to Zeus, but there was never any parentage established. The other gods liked her well enough, but she was a bit aimless, liked to hang out with the animals, swim with the fishes, and loved wine.
This troubled the minor gods mainly Chaos and Chronos who may have been jealous of her looks, her carefree attitude about rules, she was always late, and she loved playing drinking games, especially pin the tail on Athena (although to be fair it wasn’t actually Athena but a rather crude mock up of her involving straw, honey, and a bear).
Zeus got tired of all the complaining so while playing craps with Hemera, (he was on an impressive winning streak), and he told her he would forgive the debt if she found something for her to do. Hemera had a rather novel idea of placing Ostara in charge of spring. Spring used to arrive pretty much at the whim of Zeus, and it was very confusing to the animals, plants, and particularly the astronomers who never knew when to start the calendar, and picked April 1st out of sheer spite.
Ostera was excited at the opportunity to have a job that involved one day of work and she excitedly prepared for her first job which she decided to call the Equinox because it sounded really funny and was hard to say after a few glasses of wine. Her cousin Dionysus was really bummed out at her getting the gig because 1) she was always drinking his wine, 2) Zeus let her get away with avoiding the rituals and she still got her allowance, and 3) Dionysus really hated astronomers when his application to have a month named after him was rejected, and he lavished them with much wine.
Dionysus caught Ostera in a particularly weak moment, (she had a short attention span) the day before the Equinox and he visited her with many jugs of wine. She tried to say no, but gave in and they had a grand time. She got very drunk and slept in the next day.
Ostera awoke to the angry chatter of the animals who came out of hibernation, birds who were cold and hungry, and the laughter of the gods who didn’t like her who believed that Zeus would cut her off.
Ostera immediately waved her cape called to the gods to begin the spring and the earth warmed, the buds appeared on the trees and the animals went about their business. Dionysus laughed the hardest and mocked her. Inconsolable, Ostera walked into the fields and was horrified to find a bird that was trying to get off the ground, but could not as his wings were frozen solid and useless. Sobbing, she attracted the attention of Artemis who took pity on her and she said she would help her build new wings for the bird.
Ostera excitedly crafted new wings of such extraordinary color and beauty, she felt compelled to cover the rest of him in beautiful colors. The bird overjoyed at flying and his new appearance, flew over the countryside displaying his new appearance, and had many fans that believing he to be a new god made many offerings and begged favors of him. The bird not knowing any better bragged to the other birds that they must treat him as a god and do his bidding.
Naturally this angered the gods, and Ostera was bummed out as well and she approached the bird to give him some advice to mellow out a bit. The bird refused. He believed himself to be a god and wanted his place known to all.
The angry Ostera having no choice waved her cape and the bird was transformed into a hideous mangy hare. Seeing his appearance in a stream the hare cried for mercy as people have no use for an ugly mangy animal except as food. Ostera gave him the gift of speed and sharp claws so he could dig the earth and burrow himself under the protection of a den.
The hare still in shock asked once again for mercy, for his new lot in life was more then he could bear. Ostera having a soft spot in her heart and knowing it was her mistake that started the whole mess granted the hare one favor.
“For all of time you must hide your hideous appearance from man, you must use your speed to flee from his arrows, you must live in the earth for safety. However once a year you will regain your beautiful feathers, and you will be allowed to lay eggs of the most wondrous colors and sizes, and you will lay these eggs in the fields where the children will delight in finding them, and they will sing the praises of the magical hare who lays the most desirable eggs.”
Satisfied the hare hopped off into the forest. Ostera never had any problems with him again, but did make the acquaintance of a particularly obnoxious groundhog that was not searching for the miracle of life, but was obsessed with renting out his shadow.
I apologize for the rambling length, but Cousin Chuy can be a bit long winded.