Every year as Easter approaches, social media fills up with outraged claims that companies, politicians, institutions or individuals are actively avoiding the word "Easter" and therefore downplaying the traditional religious roots of the Christian holiday, supposedly to avoid offending non-Christians.

This year is no different in Germany, with a debate breaking out over the traditional chocolate Easter bunny (Osterhase) which, according to some social media users, has been renamed "sitting bunny" (Sitzhase) by leading supermarkets.

Claim: "The sitting bunny is forcing out the Easter bunny," wrote Johann Martel, a member of parliament for the far-right populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD), in a post on X which has been viewed almost 200,000 times. He used this claim to bolster the AfD's racist and Islamaphobic platform, which insists Germany is becoming more Muslim and less Christian.

DW fact check: False.

It is true that the German discount supermarket chain Lidl sells one chocolate rabbit called a "Sitzhase" (sitting bunny) from the brand Favorina — or at least it........

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