The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-03-28

&" See the land, her Easter keeping,
Rises as her Maker rose.

while the wild BIRDS build and sing.
"You, to whom your Maker granted
Powers to those sweet birds unknown
Use the craft by God implanted;
Use the reason not your own. rlr r,-
Here while heaven and earth fejoices, tta
Each his Easter tribute bring
Work of fingers, chant of voices,
Like the birds who build and sing"
Such are the strains In which Charles Kingsley.
one of EDglsnds sweetest bards. ereets the dawn
ing of the Resurrection Morn. and they are words
which find an echo In the heart Of every believer.
For scared although his heart may be by contact
with the world bitter as may have been his ex.
periences, and prone as be may have become to
concentrate his thoughts on the here. and utterly
eliminate the hereafter from his calculations hard
indeed must be his heart and dead bis SOUL if still
retaining spark of belief In the divine mystery.
he does not end his GOODNESS warmed into flame
ftful though IL be, by the rising OF the
Easter sun. For TO- day is the one selected as the
anniversary of the commemorstion of the mission
of the God.M to-day is the day whereon, after
having laid the three appointed days In the cold
embrace of death, the captor OF captivity, threw
of the dominion Of things earthly, and once more
assuming the prerogstives of the Son of God burst
the bonds Of the grave and walked forth in the
clear sunlight to bid the guests to the table.
which was at last spread and to-day is the day
whereon, while ii was yet early in the morning.,
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the
sepulchre to give the body Of their Lord those
last rites which, in the haste of the burial, 1t had
been denied came with trembling, faltering foot
steps, with minds full of doubt and perplexity,
for their eyes were as yet closed came discussing
how they might best roll away the heavy stone
which closed the mouth of the sepulchre; came
to look their last upon their dead Lords face and
to press their last caress upon bis cold lps came
to the sepulchre, and 10! the stone was no more
there, and the body of Jesus had been
taken away. To-day is the day when,
to those two women, the angels guard.
ing the tomb told the wondrous story of the
resurrection, when the women. full of sorrow and
but half believing, turned away to tell the other
disciples, when John and Peter, to prove to their
own eyes that it was 80 indeed, ran to the
sepulchre and looked In and saw no man, and
turned away, wondering what these things should
mean. And to-day is the day whereon, first after
his resurrection-O wondrous condescension, o
spring of joy to the repentant sinner-Jesus
showed himself, not to the beloved disciple, not
to the chief priests and Pharisees, not to the
learned and great and holy, but to the outcast.
Mary Msgdalene. Yes, this is Easter Sunday.
Ring out, then, ye bells, silent SO long, joyous
peal, and let your reverberations carry to
furtbest ages the tidings Of great joy, "Christ,
the Lord, is risen to-day 20
But perhaps our readers would be interested in
information relative to the reason for our keeping
this day, of all the days in the year. Easter and
in the customs which have prevailed in various
countries for its celebration and in those which
xsaf Efrof 10 fo ma In in
the primitive ages Of the Church, Easter was
known as the Paschsl Feast, because 1t fell at the
same time as the Pascha or Jewish Passover. Our
name, Easter, is by some said TO be derived from
Eostre, q Saxon ciety whose feast was celebrated
| 10 the Spring time, and whose name the Saxons,
when converted to Christianity, still retained as the
mark OF the season In which Easter is celebrated
| Others hold that it is derived from Saxon Oster,
siRnifying rising. But whichever this be 1t Is
| matter Of small moment to all save antiquarians
| Although the Church in all ages has agreed
Why Easter should be kept, there has been much
| dispute as to when. The controversy originated
the l4th Nissan of the Jewish calendar, as being
| the exact anniversary of our Lords anniversary,
| whereas the Eastern churches, remembering that
the resurrection was on Sunday, kept the Sunday
| following the 14th Nissan. That both sides had
apparently good grounds Is shown from the fact
that A. d. l5s. Polycarp, the venerable bishop of
| Smyrna, while on visit to Rome, took the OPP
portunity Of comforting with Ancietas. bisnop Of
/
support his views the practice of st. Phillip and
ST. john with the latter of whom he had lived and
Joined in the celebration Of Easter after the man
| ner' Of the Eastern churches; Ancietas pleaded
| the examples Of st. Peter and St. Paul; no con.
cessious were made and the bishops separated
without agreeing upon any action In regard TO the
| matter.
This diversity, however, between the branches
| Of the church continued without breeding any
discord until the close Of the second century when
| the difference caused an open division between
the Eastern and Western churches, those adhering
to our present method styling the others qudrto
| decimdns. r0.
The various discussions upon the proper date
for the Easter celebration that took place during
| The next ceAtury need hardly be chroniced. Suf-
| fee il TO be said that ct the great Ecumenical
| Council of Nice "a. D. 1851 the following rules
| for the finding of Easter day were laid down:
the vernal equinox. fsr f4t
2. That the full moon happening upon or next
after the 2lst day of March shall be taken for the
full moon of Nissan. ltr
5. That the Lords day next following that full
4. But II the full moon happen upon Sunday,
Easter day shall be the Sunday after.
The bishop Of Alexandria was appointed, as
being of the nation the most skilled in astronomy,
to keep the reckoning and notify the other bishops
of the date of Easter. But this method was too
clumsy and too liable to interruption to last
long, and we therefore find that soon after the
| golden NUMBERS OF tne MetOnc cycle were huopt
ed, and placed against the days In each month on
which the new moon should fall during the year
of the cycle. The Metonic cycle was 80 called
from Melton. q Greek, who discovered that every
nineteen years the moon returns to her changes
on the same day of the same month. and an
nounced his discovery at the Olympic Games, b. O.
433. But they had forgotten that at the end OF
nineteen years, although the new moon occurs on
the same day as ct the beginning, yet that IL falls
an hour earlier. Discovering the imperfection of
the Metonic cycle, another, calculated for eighty
four years, was constructed and subsequently an
| other for o longer period. tt. 500
Britain originally kept the Easter according
to the Alexandrian rule. but afterwards, under
King Oswy, A. d. 664, adopted the Roman
| method. 4.t
We all remember our childish association Of
Easter Day with colored eggs, and the keen
pleasure we experienced In lighting eggs" with
our comrades. This, however, ia but one of the
many curious customs which have prevailed In
| former days on the Queen of Festivals. In print
| tive ages Il was customary, when Christian mel
another on this day. to salute him with Christ 4
risen," to which the one addressed replied
"Chrst is risen, indeed,n or else and hath sp
pesred unto Simon" IT'S Q pity that such q
custom should even now lack use, and il is graft
IL