As Mad as a March hare

Christians go to church to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. Traditionally, Easter is also celebrated with chocolates. What kind of Easter chocolate has the longest history? The Easter Bunny（復活節兔子）with eggs is thought to have been very common since the 19th century. The Easter Bunny is also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare. 

While people think that “rabbits” and “hares” are the same, they actually are two different species. We can see one of their differences in the expression, “as mad as a March hare”. 

Hares are larger than rabbits. They have longer hind legs and longer ears. In the breeding season, hares behave strangely, such as leaping about, fighting and chasing each other. Sometimes a male and a female may stand up on their hind legs and have “boxing” with each other. Their crazy behaviour has thus given rise to the idiomatic phrase, “as mad as a March hare”. However, their mating period in fact is in March and April. 

Part of the phrase first appeared in 1529 in the writing of Sir Thomas More, a personal adviser to King Henry VIII of England. 

As mad not as a march hare, but as a madde dogge [mad dog]. 

The expression has become more popular since 1865, when an English writer, Lewis Carroll, created a famous character called the March Hare in his book, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”（《愛麗斯夢遊仙境》）. 

Nowadays, people use this expression to describe someone who is irrational or extremely silly. 

Tom was as mad as a March hare（發瘋）when he found out that he had lost his car key.