The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-03-22
Easter Sunday.

Next Sunday will be Easter Sun
day. To the Christian world Easter
is one of the most important histor-
ical days, for it commentaries the
resurrection of Jesus. The day has
been celebrated by believers with
the greatest joy from the earliest Pc
Rod of Christianity. In early ages
it was the custom of Christians to
salute each other on Easter morn.
ing by exelaiming, "Christ is risen;n
the reply to which was, "Christ is
risen, indeed" or else, "And hath
appeared unto Simon" This is still
the practice in the Greek Church.
The name Easter is believed by
some to be derived from Eostre, the
name of a Saxon deity, whose feast
was celebrated about the same time
of the year; by others it is supposed
to be from Oster, signifying rising
making it in the name and fact
the feast of the resurrection.
There has been considerable diff
ference of opinion as to when Easter
should be observed. There is no
regular calender day for its obsery-
ance, but the date moves backward
or forward, according as the full
moon Immediately succeeding the
vernal equinox falls nearer or further
from the equinox. The direction
given in the prayer-book to find it
is that "Easter day is always the
first Sunday after the full moon
which happens upon or next after
the 21st day of March; and if the
full moon happens upon a Sunday,
Easter day is the Sunday after" All
the movable feasts and fasts of the
year depend upon Easter day.
Next to Christmas Easter must
be set down as the most beautiful of
all the festivals of the Christian
year. In the one we have the com.
memoration of the beginning of the
earthly life of Him who came to
bring peace and good will to men,
and in the other the browning work,
the end Of a career the most wonder
full and most important the world
has ever seen. The story of the
birth and of the resurrection is the
most marvellous that was ever writ
ten, and upon the one and the other
hang the whole Christian scheme,
the hope and the happiness of mil
lions and millions of people as wide
apart as men can be in race, habit,
language, custom, thought. There
are not probably two countries in
the world whose outward observance
of the day is the same, but in all
there is to be found the grand Gen.
trail idea that the resurrection of the
humble Galilean means the resur-
rection, the new life, of each and all
of us. 1t is a curious coincidence
in the life ofthe Redeemer that, full
as it is of sorrow and suffering and
tragedy, the beginning and end are
periods of joy and of triumph. The
glad anthems of Easter are the
echoes of the triumphant paan of
the natal morning when the song of
the angels was heard by the shep
herds and the star stood still over
Bethlehem.
AS the world grows older and men
grow wiser, there is a greater dispo-
sition among the various sects who
profess the religion of Our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ, to meet on
common ground at certain seasons,
and while each denomination clings
with natural and proper fondness
to its own peculiar tenents of faith,
it can still unite with fellow Chris
tians in celebrating with joy and
gladness the birth, resurrection and
ascension Of the Redeemer of the
World.
Easter Sunday is, apart from It's
religious history and significance, a