Wichita eagle., 1888-04-01

tory. and 1t has been frequently urged OF
late years that Easter should be made fixed
festival, Sunday late in April being cele-
brated, or that nearest the 5th of April,
which, according to Haydn, was the date Of
the original Easter day, as Advent Sunday
is the nearest Sunday to st. Andrews day,
whether before or after A we'll known pro-
fessor of astronomy in one of our leading
colleges, in reference to this subject, says:
''The fact is that the date Of Easter Sunday
simply depends upon the fullness Of hypo-
thetlcal and suppoSititious moon, invented and
made to move in an impossible manner by
Pope Hilarius, the supposed movements Of
which are such as occasionally to make
Easter Sunday vary by five weeks from the
date given by the real moon" 1t is needless,
however, to say that any attempt to change
the system Of fixing Easter day would be
certain to precipitate the hveliest kind of an
ecclesiastical uproar, although it might not
bring armed mobs into the streets to clamor
for the stolen days" as happened with the
change in the calendar.
Easter, which is now preceded by Lent, in
early days was introduced by fasting on one
day only--the Friday in Passion week known
as Good Friday. By and by the time was
extended to forty hours in token that Christ
had lain that long in the tomb, and from
this it was finally prolonged to forty days
the season Of the temptation in the wilder
ness. On Easter morning the primitive
Christians saluted each other with the words
Christ is arisen" to which the person ad-
dressed answered. ''Christ is arisen, indeed
a custom which is still retained in the Greek
church.
All the ceremonies attending the observ-
ance Of Easter were at first very simple. but
in the early part Of the Fourth century a de-
cided change was brought about by Con-
stantiue, vino. naturally fond of parade. sig
nalzed his love of display by celebrating this
festival with extraordinary pomp. At the
vigils instituted for Easter eve, when the
people remained in the churches, huge tapers
of wax were burned; these were however,
not confined TO the churches, but were
placed all over the city. Easter Sunday was
observed with elaborate ceremonials, the
pope officiating ct mas with every imposing
accessory that could be brought TO bear in
that service.
The churches were adorned at this season
like theatres, and crowds poured in TO see the
sepulchers which were erected representing
the whole scene of our Savior's entomhulent.
second coming would be on Easter eve, there
fore the sepulchers were watched through the
night until o'clock in the morning, when
two Of the Oldest monks would enter and take
out . beautiful image OF the resurrection,
which was elevated before the people during
the singing of the anthem, ''Christus Rs-sur-
gems II was then carried 10 the high altar,
and. procession being formed. canopy of
velvet was borne over il by ancient gentle
men They proceeded round the exterior Of
the church by the light Of torches, all sing
ing, rejoicing and praying, until coming
again to the high altar it was there placed 20
remain until Ascension day. In many places
the monks perxonated all the characters con-
nected with the event they celebrated, and
thus rendered the scene Still more picturesque.
Many Of the old customs of Eastertide Sill
IinSer with as The pessantry IN certain
portions Of England ard Scotland, up to .
very recent dsse. observed TIE absurd CTS
ton, of lifting or "heaving.' As it was
called
On Easter Monday the men, carrying
chairs, went about insisting that all the
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