Oeaster also has a celtic counterpart named Andastre, meaning "from the land of the east", who's symbol was also the rabbit. Andastre was also a goddess of fertility, and also was said to be capable of making people cowardly and weak like a rabbit. Queen Boadicea (or Boudicca) was said to cast a dead rabbit at the armies of the Romans to make them cowardly so her armies would be victorious. Sadly, it didn't work, the Romans slaughtered her army, publicly whipped her, raped her daughters and conquered Briton, but hey.

This maybe a coincidence, Fat Tuesday happens to be held very close to the date of the Bacchanalian Revelries, which was related to the celebrations of Bacchus and Dionysius, and held a certain number of days after the roman new year.

There really is no point in bitching about the holidays and traditions of the church. Scholars across the world have proven that said holidays were just pagan holidays dressed up all purdy and given new names. Quite frankly, I'm starting to seriously regret I brought Christianity up in the first place.