Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1870-04-22
From the claremont, N. 10 Eagle.
Easter Day.

upon the nature and peculiar Joys OIL
Christmas; and now as Easter day
draws near, we venture few re-
marks upon this dominica gaada or Sun
day of Joy, as it was called by ancient
writers.
This feast occurs annually on the Sun
day after the first full moon which hap
pens on or after March Dist, ranging all
the way from March 22d to April 25,
Lent being always the six weeks and four
days preceding it-being forty days be-
sides Sundays.
This joyous festival fellows the forty
days fast of Lent, and coming on the
third day after Good Friday, which COM
memorates the Crucifixion of our Lord,
it celebrates the rising from the dead of
Him who is the resurrection and the
life.
The name Easter is derived from the
Saxon word oster which signifies rising
because nature arises anew in the Spring.
1t is also called Pasch, being the equiva-
lent and realization of the Jewish Pass
over on which the Paschal Lamb, typi-
flying the true Paschal LAM, was slain.
Christians have from the earliest ages,
celebrated this day with especial zest,
terming it the Queen of Festivals. As
all Christians, on the preceding Friday,
stood, as it were, mounfully by the cross
of their Saviour, and the next day were
overwhelmed with grief for his depart
ure; on this day we are called, upon the
first notice of his resurrection from the
grave, with becoming and holy trans
port, to turn our heaviness into joy, to
put off our sackcloth, and grid ourselves
with gladness.
In primitive times, and now in Russia
and Greece, on Easter morning, the sal
utation is "Christ is risen," to which the
answer He is risen, indeed accempa-
MED, invariably, by kiss. 1t matters
not how high in station the one or how
low that of the other this ceremony is
never omitted. In other lands the Pasch
Egg, symbol of the tomb from which in
due time the living animal will break
forth, is much in favor. Presents of
eggs, more or less deliberately colored
and decorated, are made from one to an
other, sometimes with the contents blown
out and filled with confectionery. In
royal roll of the time of Edward I, APP
pears an entry of IS pence for 400 eggs
to be used in this way.
In some parts of Ireland the legend is
current that the sun dances in the sky
on Easter Sunday morning.
Custom varies much in different, places
as to the ceremonies and sports proper to
this day-all, however, referring in some
way, though in many cases, to our appre-
hension, very remotely to the great event
commemorated. A custom, not at all to
be commended, prevailed in France of
stoning the Jews at this season. The
Count de Rochechouard, having visited
Toulouse at Easter, the Chapter of st.
Etienne appointed his Chaplain Hughes
to beat Jew in his honor, duty which
was performed so zealously that the vic
tim expired on the spot. English boys
would cry, as they ran about the streets
" Christ is risen, Christ is risen.
All the Jews must go to prison"
To mark their adherence of those
who killed the Lord, the English used
also to make point of eating bacon on
this festival. On this day prisoners and
slaves were set free and the poor liber-
ally provided for.
We are pleased to record the spread,
in this country, not much given to sacred
holidays, of the observance of this Sun
day of Joy. Very many of our church
es, besides the Episcopal and Romish,
are now profusely adorned with rich
fowers-nature' emblem and to us
constant reminder of the resurrection
from the dead. We bury the bulb in
its dark tomb of earth where, through
the long winter, it lies, to human eye,
dead and without the possibility of fu-
ture growth. But behold, with the ge.
MAJ warmth of spring it lives again in
form, color and fragrance surprising far
the Insignificant object which we plant
ed there.
Thus it is that nature testifes in the
clearest and most eloquent manner the
reality of resurrection. And when it
shall be our sad duty with breaking
hearts to lay in Gods Acre the lifeless
remains of those whom we dearly love,
may we look forward, with invincible
faith and confidence, to the time when
they, with US, terminated by the life
giving breath of a loving and faithful
Creator, and through the power of the
Lion of the tribe of Judah, shall arise
in form and to an existence infinitely
surprising this present where there