Rep. Richard Singleton, R-Cumberland, has introduced a bill to keep the "Easter" in Easter Bunny.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

The Easter Bunny, the Christmas tree, the menorah.

Changing the names of these symbols, and others, will be off limits to municipal governments, according to a bill introduced yesterday by state Rep. Richard W. Singleton, R-Cumberland.

Prompted by the Tiverton Public School District’s decision two weeks ago to change the name of the Easter Bunny to Peter Rabbit, Singleton said his proposed bill would make it illegal for municipal governing bodies to alter the names, concepts, and symbols associated with religious or secular holidays.

“It is time we all grew up and stop playing these name games,” said Singleton, a practicing Catholic. “This is the type of thing that drives the average person crazy.”

The bill, which Singleton nicknamed “The Easter Bunny Act,” is entitled “An Act Relating to Holidays and Days of Special Observance — Holiday Symbols.”

Singleton’s bill would mandate that “no city, town, or any department or political subdivision thereof may adopt, enact, impose, or promote any ordinance, rule, regulation, policy or protocol which requires the alteration of the name or concept of any religious or secular holiday or any religious or secular figure or symbol associated with such holiday.”

“Basically it says you can’t change the Easter Bunny to Peter Rabbit or the Christmas tree to the Holiday Tree,” explained Singleton. “No name changes, for any religion, across the board.”

Singleton has made waves in the General Assembly lately as the face of the fight to impose restrictions on illegal immigrants, introducing 15 illegal-immigration-related bills in the past three months. He also introduced a bill that would make uniforms mandatory in public schools.

The Easter Bunny was scheduled to make an appearance at a craft fair at the Tiverton Middle School on March 24, but Supt. William Rearick was concerned that the name might give the impression that the school district was promoting religion and told event organizers to change the name to Peter Rabbit.

“This is a quality of life issue and it chips away at the average person,” Singleton said of the importance of religious symbols. “Why change things that we hold sacred? Why are they no good now after being used for 200-plus years?”

Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union Union, believes the bill would not guarantee that the Easter Bunny and Christmas tree would retain their Christian overtones, since they were symbols adopted by early Christians from pagan traditions.

“Who is to determine what is the original name for a symbol that may be associated with a number of holidays?” he said. “The irony is that the bill would prohibit municipalities from using the term ‘Christmas tree’ because that represents a name change of the fir tree used in the pagan winter solstice celebration.”

The Rev. Bernard Healey, pastor at St. Ambrose Roman Catholic Church in Lincoln and chief lobbyist for the Catholic Diocese of Providence, applauded Singleton’s efforts, though he wondered if the bill was “unconstitutional.”

Father Healey acknowledged that the Easter Bunny has its origin in pre-Christian, pagan fertility lore, and is not a Christian symbol. The rabbit symbolized new life and was used in pagan celebrations marking the beginning of spring, he said.

“The Easter Bunny has a Christian and a non-Christian significance,” he said. “As a Christian symbol, I would say it is not one of those that I would go to the barricades to defend.”

But Father Healey said that Singleton’s bill hit on a point the church has felt strongly about in recent years: that some are more concerned about eliminating religion from public discourse than about protecting the separation of church and state.

“Religion has a place in our society and culture, and it is getting to the point where we can’t say a thing is anything,” he said. “While we are not trying to promote religious indoctrination, we are saying there is a danger when people are trying to remove religion altogether from schools.”

pmarcelo@projo.com