Animal Crossing: New Horizon's first big event, Bunny Day, is almost here

Nintendo surprised fans by dropping a Direct Mini out of the blue Thursday morning, and while it covered the spring 2020 video game lineup for the Nintendo Switch, it also shined a spotlight on a new event and update coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons in April. It's called Bunny Day, and the event is just as cute and glorious as you'd imagine.

At about the 8:30 mark in Thursday morning's Nintendo Direct, the company offered a sneak peak at the upcoming Animal Crossing event. This April event is focused on Easter, though the inhabitants of Animal Crossing's world call it Bunny Day. The event lasts from April 1 until April 12 and includes a number of Bunny Day festivities hosted by Zipper the Bunny, who'll move to your island for the duration of the event and hide eggs everywhere. He'll also introduce various cosmetic items. The event will be followed by another free update later in April that will add even more to the game and celebrate Earth Day. But the end of this section also teases autumn- and winter-themed events.

What is Bunny Day in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

To access Bunny Day, your game will have to be updated to at least the 1.1.0 version, which is the launch day update. Once you do that, Zipper will show up on your island on April 1. He sends players on a scavenger hunt to find all the eggs he's hidden. The Direct shows that these have to be discovered with the tools players have at their disposal, including shovels and even the fishing rod. In other words, they might appear in the same places that fossils and fish do.

The event doesn't end there though: the eggs will allow players to craft new egg-themed items to spruce up the island. Through the Direct Mini and some released screenshots, Inverse spotted that players can create a large egg basket, an egg table, egg balloons, and an eggcellent arch.

If you're in the Southern Hemisphere of the real-life planet, you'll have to wait another 6 months before you can experience this event, but Northern Hemisphere players can make their island Easter-themed in just a few days. As previously mentioned, the Bunny Day event will run in Animal Crossing: New Horizons from April 1 until April 12.

What's coming later in April?

While the Nintendo Direct Mini mainly focused on Bunny Day event festivities, Nintendo cemented the fact that it plans on supporting Animal Crossing: New Horizons for a long time to come. There's another major update is on its way later in April.

According to Nintendo, the main aspect of this update will be an Earth Day-themed event. The teaser image confirms that Leif, who ran the Garden Center in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, will be making his grand return to the franchise. Not much else was revealed about this update, though Nintendo says more will be shared soon on the Animal Crossing Twitter account.

Typically, Nature Day stands in for Earth Day in Animal Crossing games, so that will probably be the case with New Horizons as well. The update does not have a release date outside of "later in April," but considering that Earth Day takes place on April 22 — and New Horizons updates seem to arrive on Wednesday — we can probably assume that this event will begin on April 22.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is exclusively available now on Nintendo Switch