Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-03-25
F4STER STNDAY

To-day occurs the church festival COM
memorative Of Christ's resurrection. It
occurs annually on the Sunday following
Good Friday. There was anciently much
dispute as to the proper time for the cele-
bration Of Easter. In the second century q
controversy arose between the Eastern and
Western churches. The dispute was finally
settled by the Council Of Nice, in 325,
which ordered that the feast should be
celebrated uniformly on the Sunday after
March II, and not on the same day with the
Jews. The English name Easter, and the
German Ostern, are most probably derived
from the name of - the feast
of the Teutonic goddess, Ostera,
which was celebrated by the ancient Sax
ons early in the spring, and for which, as
in many other instances, the first mission
aries wisely substituted the Christian feast
A learned scholar derives Ostera and Easter
from the old word Oster, Ostern, which
signifies rising, because nature arises
new in the spring. This is also the
derivation of east, in German, Osten.
Easter fires, Easter-eggs and many other
customs and superstitions, have their ORR
gin from the heather feast, which, as the
celebration Of the resurrection of nature,
was very appropriately succeeded by the
festival which commentaries the resur-
rection of ChEist.
The Latin paScha, and the name of the
same festival in several other Ian
guages, originated from the notion that
Christ was typifed by the paschaI lamb
ordained by Moses in the feast of the
Passover; and Paul says, 1 Cor. v: Z, "For
even Christ cur passover is sanctifed for
u.s.
Among the Greeks and Roman Catho-
lies Easter is the most joyful festival Of
the church, and is also observed with great
solemnity in the English church by the
Lutheran and the European Calvan-
lists.
In the ancient church the celebration of
Easter lasted eight days. After the elev-
enth century it was limited to three, and
in later times TO tive days. It was former
ly a favorite time for performing
the rite Of baptism. The
courts of justice were closed,
and aims dispensed to the poor and needy,
who were even Toasted in the churches,
custom which led to much disorder. Slaves
also received their freedom at that season;
and so as the austerities of Lent were
over, the people gave themselves up to en-
joyment, and hence the day was called the |
Sunday of Joy.
The most characteristic Easter rite, and |
the one most widely difused is the use of |
PGscE, that is, Eastern eggs. They are
usually stained of various colors, with dye |
woods or herbs, and people mutually make
presents of them; sometimes they are kept
as amulets, sometimes eaten; games are also
played by striking them against oHe an
other.
In some parts of the Moorlands of Scot
land it used to be the custom for young
people to go out early on ''Pasch Sunday"
and search for wild fowls eggs for brake
fast, and it was thought lucky to find
them.
There can. be but little doubt that the
use of eggs at this season was
originally symbolical of the revivifcation
of nature-the springing forth of life in
the spring-time. The practice was not
confined to Christians; the Jews used eggs
at the feast of the Passover; and we are
told that the Persians, when they keep the
festival of the solar new year lin March)
mutually present each other with colored
eggs. From the Christian point of view,
this Feast of Eggs has been usually con-
sidered emblematic of the resurrection and
a future life.
Customs change with the ages, and the
custom of mutually presenting, as tokens
of good will, colored eggs, has of recent
years been giving place to the presenta-
ton of Easter cards, the manufacture of
which, year by year, has in
creased in magnitude, and in
multiplicity of styles of the
most ornate character, at once retain
ing the symbol of the far-famed Easter
egg, and devoutly presenting the agony
of the cross and the glory of the resurrec-
ton.
We have thus drawn from historical
points, and might greatly enlarge upon
them, the peculiarities of Easter observ-
ances in the times past. But, however
much in the dim ages of the past these
observances may have taken a hue and
tinge from pagan superstitions, stripped
of all superstitious vagaries, the great
of Easter observances is the