The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-05-30
EASTER DAY.
The Queen Festival of the Chris
tian Year.
Various Ancient Customs-The SepuIcher
ShOw-Easter King-The Universal
Use of DETERMINATIONS
A Costly Curiosity.

All Christian churches concur in re-
garding Easter Day as the most inn
portant and central of the great festi-
walls of the year. 1t derives its name,
some think, from the Saxon oster, to
rise; while others maintain that it is
named after the Saxon goddess Easter,
who was always worshiped at this sea-
son.
An angry and prolonged controversy
arose in the middle of the Second Cen
fury between the Eastern and Western
churches as to the proper day on
which to commemorate the resurrec-
ton. The former celebrated it on the
same day as the Jews solemnized their
Passover; the latter. in order to dis
tinguish the Christian Easter from the
Jewish Paschal feast, observe it on the
Sunday subsequent With the view of
bringing about an agreement on this
vexed point, Polycarp, Bishop of Smyr-
ma, visited Rome, where he held a con-
ference with Anicetus, Bishop of that
See. One adduced the practice of
Saint Philip and Saint John in support
of his theory; the other supported his
view by reference to that of Saint Pc
ter and Saint Paul. Thus the matter
ended. Some time afterward, Victor,
Bishop of Rome, endeavored, but I'M
successfully. to compel the Greek
Church to conform to the practice of
the Latin, which practice was con-
firmed in the Fourth Century by the
Ecumenical Council of Nice.
Strange to say, the churches of
Britain and Ireland adhered to
the Eastern mode, until Osuwy, King
of Northumbria, in A. D., 664, gave
his royal verdict in favor of a change.
The time of keeping Easter now is the
first Sunday after the full moon, which
happens upon on next after the 2lst
of March. Should the full moon occur
on Sunday, Easter Day will be the
Sunday after. This festival can never
occur earlier than the 22nd of March.
1t fell on that day in 1918Aand will not
do so again till the year 2285.
THE SEPULGHER SHOW.
OF all the Easter practices, perhaps
the most remarkable was the Sepul-
cher Show. There was an ancient ira
dition that the second coming of
Christ would occur upon the eve of
mony of Making and Watching the
Sepulcher. which continued in England
until the Reformation. At the period
referred to, the only theaters for the
populace were the churches, while the
monks were the chief actors, so that at
Easter plays were prepared either for
popular amusement or edification.
These were entirely of religious char
ID tod IN
the history of the Founder of the Chris
tian faith. One of the most imposing
spectacles must have been in those
churches where the Resurrection of
the Sepulcher' was performed, the
drGnatss persona being monks, clothed
in habiliments suited to the characters
they assumed, The lights at the Sepul-
cher Show formed no trivial part of the
attraction. One massive taper, called
the Paschal, was lighted in each
church. That at Westminster Abbey, in
1857, weighed 300 pounds; that al
Durham Cathedral was made of pure
wax, square in shape, and extended tC
within half a dozen feet of the roof
Every church in London had sepul
cher.
EASTER MERRIMENT.
Strange, indeed, were the different
forms of merriment practiced at this
Joyous season. In the thirteenth cen
fury, whenever anecclesiastica appeared
in the streets between Easter and Pen
tecost, he was sure to be seized, anC
could only obtain his liberty by th'
payment of fine. The cause assigned
for this wanton folly was the seizure o.
the Apostles by the Jews after Christ
passion. Stoning Jews and otherwis'
prosecuting that race at Easter formed
repulsive modes of diversion, more es
.pecially with the Parisians. In SOM
French towns it was the practice to la.
hold of Jew, lead him to the neares
church and openly buffet him on tn
face.
Tho merriment so predominant a
Easter seems to have pervaded al
ranks and conditions, not excepting
even the priests, who, in Germany, dur
ing the sixteenth century, used to in
tersperse their sermons with Faction
atOPipS