Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-04-30

Passion week In Paris may be formed tho
1east Of eggs" Every good Catholic not
only fastS every Friday throughout the year,
but for a week together at Easter. The
church does not allow any flesh food; but
eggs may be eaten in any quantity. On the
first day Of Passion week everybody presents
everyone else with some little gift emblamati-
cal Of IN egg in some shape or other, which
is Known as Pasehal eggs Cpufs dss Paque).
Among a people so ingenious in triles as tho
Parisians the opportunity is not lost, so that
egg-shaped articles are to be had in every
conceivable variety Of materials. One would
think that the once imperial eagle of France
had summoned all the birds of the air to
come to Paris, build their nests in shop win
dows, and there deposit their eggs, for go
where you will, look into whatever shop you
fancy, there you see eggs from the size of a
caraway comfit, such as is found in the nest
of the humming bird, to one as large as a
bowl-the ostrich egg, for instance. The toy
shops are full Of egg-shaped boxes; within
them are dolls and playthings. Here you
have chocolate eggs, full of cream where
the yolk should be; there you have
sugar eggs filed with liquor, and again, ivory
Do ASAAA "AA-h 10 q OCClAb DOublts l. III
along the streets are women with barrows
crying aloud, "Des 0ufS! des @utS!" "Eggsl
eggs" On their p~erambulating boards are
piled two lots Of eggs, one white, natural; the
other red, cooked in logwood water. Thus
red eggs ready-boiled, are sold in every street
in Paris.
Some of the nests are beautiful works Of
art. Here is a sloat or weasel stealthily
climbing up a tree to suck the eggs, with tho
parent bird in battle array, ready to drive
the intruder away. Altogether in Paris,
Easter eggs are one of its sights, and well
worth seeing.
The rank of a princess does not shield her
from a salute on the cheek by the lowest boor
who presents her an egg at Easter, in Russia;
and the custom of distributing Face, or pdche
ege-the Passion or Easter eggs still OBJ
served by the peasantry in different parts Of
England; while the young people of Scot
land, where the festival has been suppressed
for centuries, still throw about and play with
hard-boiled colored eggs, which they finally
cat.
In the days when old and young alike re-
ceived these eggs, the demand for them was
such that they commanded oftentimes great
prices. After they were boiled hard, and
colored in red, violet, blue, green, etc, dyes,
Inscriptions and various designs were traced
on them, and those ornamented were ex-
changed by those sentimeutally inclined,
very much after the same fashion as are the
valentines of the present day. The palmer
ones were saved by the youth and used on
Easter Monday in playing ball, which, by
the way, was a ~favorite game.
On Easter Monday even the clergy INDUCED
in the delights of this game of ball, which
men, women and children reveled in. In
many instances it formed a part of their ser
vice, bishops and deacons taking a ball to
church, and at the commencement of the
anthem, while dancing to the music, threw it
to the choristers, who handed it back and
forth to each other during the singing. After
this service they all retired for refreshments,
which usually consisted Of a dish Of bacon
with tansy ~pudding-this last symbolical of
the bitter herbs they were commanded to take
at the Paschal feast.
Though these old customs are often modi-
fed and greatly changed, they all bear
resemblance to those from which they
sprung. In certain parts of England the
dUSuIu anu seiSeleoS pIuCIlCe Vi HlCllS UT
"heaving" is in vogue. This is performed by
two strong men or women joining hands
across each others wrists, forming a sort of
seat, IN which the person to be lifted sits,
when he is thrown up into the air two or
three times, being often, during this process,
carried several yards along the street. On
Easter Mondays the Heen "lift" the women,
and on Tuesdays the women return the COM
pliment. Very ludicrous incidents have been
related Of travellers who, ignorant of the
prevalence of this custom, have been aston
ished to find themselves in the strong rms Of
these people, and "heaved" in spite Of their
excavations and efforts for release.