Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-04-18
TIE SPRING FESTIVAL.

ihE NfhlNu IENIiN IL.
Easter is the festival of spring. Ii was
known long before the time of our Lord, and
it was adopted by the carly Christians, who
wisely avalcd themselves Of what was nt
ulal and innocent in iha customs Of jhc
heather, and gave to them broader and
deeper significance than they had, or could
have had, under Psgauism. The Pagan
Easter related to the revival, or the return,
or the resurrection of spring. Brand says
that Easter is so Gale! from the Saxon
OSter to rise, being the Cay Of Chris's Res.
direction; or, rs Others think, from one of
the Saxon gOddesses called Easter EoStl.,
Or OSteyo, Goddess of Spring. or of love, a
borcan Venus, 'whom thcy always wof-
shipped at this season. But he says that
Easter may be from an Auglo .SaNou word
that signifies storm, "thc tine of Easter
being subject TO the continual recurrence of
tcmpestuous weather." The SaXons called
April Eastermonath, aud EdSlrc was held,
then, and has been held by some since, to
| have been the Astartc of the Phwnicians.
When the Saxons became Christians, they
kept up the spring festival, aud retained the
| name, though they had changed their faith.
The Pagan name was continued fol it would
have been too violent wrench TO demand
| the abandonment of that; and the name
passed to the first Of Christian observanccs
1t comes with peculiar appropriateness, this
coincidence of the celebration of the Rosur.
rection of our Lord and the resurrection Of
| Nature after the death of Winter. The
festival comes with The shoHeis OF April
with the going away of Tie Supw aud the r.
appearance of the long covered green
of the harder and blllcr v1.etation. Il is
the festival OF the flowers. Against The
background Of the laily life of humanity is
placed i'll relief the floral types of the ideal
life, which is the real life to come as one day
We shall know it. at is not at this moment
lrue," says Matthew Arnold, "lhat the world
wants fire and strength more than sweetness
and Eight, and it is the sweetness and light
that the Easter festival brings. The COLDER
CORY Of the morning is an atmosphere Of
gladness.
3 But the festival has Il broader meaning
$ 1t is the promise and pledge Of Immortality
, and this promise is echoed in our literature
the Easter books, the Easter cards, the East
CT flowers, the Easter eggs, and an endles
variety Of bric-a brac. And not only in III,
c popular life but in all the churches lh
Easter idea has taken strong hold. In TIL
and in the universal celebration of that otbe
, most ancient festival, Christmas, is thcr
- not strong hope that the Iconoclasm, tb
irreverencc, the unbclief of the world ar
passing away? Is not mankind tightcnin
and not looaening its hold upon the cterna
-, verltles2 Are no. men and women putin.
: Camptell's query
so Star-eyed Science, hast thou wandered tharc
]. 70 wait us home The message Of despair -
l. and refusing to accept the message as final
:, Surely in this will be found the reason VIII
|. Easter has overlcapcd ecclesiastical bount
aries and become generally recognized le
C tlval AS some one has finely said 'Eas
!. ter is the festival of Hope hope for Il bett,
life here, ana for a yet better life beyond
hope for progress hope for the redcmptic
d OF the Garth from wrong and oppression
l. hope for the elevation of the individual MAJ
family, the nation and the race. That is Il
a significance OF Easter, in Its popularzcd il
v depreciation. The world, weary an
n heavy laden, feels that 1t has need of Il
,. sublime aspirations that cluster around II
N open sepulchre of the risen Saviour. TIL
is why it welcomes the Easter F,stiy
IS radiant with all the light of ancient story
9 fragrant with the breath of the lilies, al
10 breathing the fond promise of the Etern
"a springtlme.
a,