Easter Fires of Fredericksburg

It’s a story of bunnies and Indians, history and legend, and the Gillespie County Fair and Festivals Association, Inc., is rekindling the telling of that chapter in local history with the presentation of the Easter Fires of Fredericksburg Pageant.

The legend of the Easter Fires centers around a pioneer mother in Fredericksburg as she tries to calm her frightened children who were wondering about the huge fires blazing on the hills.

This was at the time when the colonists and their leader, John O. Meusebach, had gone to the San Saba River to meet the Indian chiefs to make a peace treaty, which to this day has not been broken.

In the meantime, other Indians kept watch on the hills surrounding Fredericksburg and they transmitted their messages by smoke signals. When word reached them of the honesty and sincerity of the colonists, they burned their fires high as a sign to the Indians that all was well.

The pioneer mother told her children that the Easter rabbit was placing eggs into huge kettles that were boiling over the fires. She explained that the rabbit was coloring them with wildflowers and that if they would go to sleep, they would find the eggs in their “nests” at the cabin door on Easter morning.