A childhood belief about easter bunny

I'm Maltese and on special occations, eg christmas, easter, birthdays etc we would go to my nan's house for lunch which was usually rabbit for the main meal. Because we were little, the grown up's used to tell us it was chicken not too scare us. One easter a relative had passed away so out of respect we were'nt aloud any easter eggs or chocolates. Becuase we were children, myself and my cousines couldn't really understand why we didn't get any chocolates that year. That was untill we were informed by one of our elder couines that the easter bunny didn't come that year because we were all going to eat him and his "helpers" for lunch and that they were defrosting in the kitchen sink. Sure enough their was the easter bunny and his "helpers" defrosting in the sink. I wouldn't believe my mum for about 4 years afterwards that my cousine was only teasing us and that the easter bunny wasn't really defrosting in the sink.