Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-05
The Jewish Feast OF the Pass
over" the Queen Of Festivals.
Controversy Between Christians of jew
ish and Gentle Descent as to
Time of Observance.
Different Customs in Different Countries-The
sacred Festival deliberately Cele.
bFated by the MOravians.



STYLED the "Queen Of Festivals - The
primitive Christians, from tLeir close
connection with the Jewish church,
naturally continued to observe Jewish
festivals Of which the principal one was
the Feast of the Passover, - which
celebrated the passing over of the houses
of the children of Israel il Egypt by the
destroying angel when be smote the
Egyptians. Easter is the perpetuation
of the Jewish feast of the Passover,
which, ennobled by the thought of
Christ, the true Paschal Sacrifoial Lamb
the first fruits from the dead-became
the Christian: Easter. Even at the pres
ent dav Easter is known to the French as
Plaques, to the Italians as Pasqua and to
the Spanish as Pascua, all Of which are
derived from the Latin Pascha and the
Greek PaTXa, which are Chaldee or Ar
mamaen forms Of the Hebrew word,
Pesach, signifyinE the passover.
For many years long and bitter con-
troversv ragged between Christians Of
Jewish and Gentle descent as to the
time at which Easter should be observed.
Christians Of Jewish origin insisted that
Lent should terminate at the same time
as the Paschal Feast Of the Jews, TO
10 which it was analogous, on the four
teenth day of the moon, and that Easter
should immediately follow, without re-
gard to the day OF the week. Gentle
Christians, on the contrary, maintained
that the first day Of the week should be
observed as that of our Lord : resurrec-
ton and the preceding Friday should be
do Of vi vii H.
ont regard to the day of the month. By
reason Of THEN observance of the four
teenth day Of the moon the former class
were dersively styled Quartodecimani,
or fourteen day men, by the latter, who
also stigmatiZed them as heTeticS.
These differences were gradually har-
mOniZed By the church at Rome, but
even at the Council of Nlcaea, A. ID. 1926,
the Syrians and Aatiochenes still de-
claTed themselves in favor of the Jewish
usage. 1t was partly to settle this con-
troVersv that the Emperor Constantine
bad called the council, and its members
finally agreed 'tthat Easter shall here
after be kept on one and the same day
throughout the world, and none shall
hereafter follow the blindness of the
Jews. - Thus the Qusrtodecimani, or
fuoFteen day usage, was done away with
but, though Easter was now universally
kept on q Sunday, no cycle by which the
date Of the festival was TO be calcu-
lated had been agreed upon, and hence
there
WERE WIDE DISCREPANCIES
between the times at which Easter was
celebrated in various place. The church
= Rome established the rule that Easter
should bethe first Sunday after the four
teenth day of the calendar moon, which
happens on or next after March 81.
A cannon of the Fourth Council of
Orleans, A. D. $40, ordained that Easter
should be kept at the same time, by all
according to that rule which was finally
established IN England by Archbishop
Theodore in A. D. G69. More than nine
hundred years later another discrepancy
in the Observance of Easter arose be-
tween the Roman and English churches,
through the refusal of the latter, IN 1882,
to adopt the Gregorian calendar, but
this difference was recon ciled in 1852
when the d" New Style'' was adopted
throughout the United Kingdom. The |
churches OF Russia and Greece, however, |
and indeed, the Oriental churches gen. |
orally, still observed the old calendar, |
Sc that their Easter occurs sometimes be- |
fore and sometimes after that of the |
Western church, though very rarely |
as in 1865, 1t fell on the same day. The |
old Roman rule for calculating Easter |
continues to be observed throughout the |
Christian world, by whom our Lord s |
resurrection IS universally celebrated on /
the first Sunday after the fourteenth day |
of the calendar moon, which happens on
or after the March 81, the vernal equi-
mex, thus allowing IL to occur as early
as March % or as late as April %.
The name of Easter, like those of the |
days Of the week, Is q survival of the old
TeutOnic mythology. To the Germans it
was known as Ostern, and to the Anglo
Saxons as Eastre or Eostre, a name de-
rived from EOstre or Ostara, the Anglo
Saxon goddess of spring, to whom the
fourth month, answering to our April,
thence called Eostur Monath, was dedi-
Gated. The name of this goddess comes
from the Saxon Oster 10 rise.
Easter customs, sports and super
stitions afford q wide field of interest.
While many of them have existed al
most from the first celebration of this
festival, and are found among Christians
OF all nationalities. there are others
hhlOh aAo pCSuliaE ~ pSOP4SS 0AN |
places.
The oldest, most familiar and most
universal of all Easter customs are those
associated with eggs. Hundreds Of years
before Christ eggs held an important place
in the theology and philosophy Of the
Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks and
Romans, among all of whom an egg was
the symbol of the universe and the art
of coloring it was profoundly studied.
The sight Of street boys striking their
rival eggs together to see which is the
strongest and can win the other was as
common in the streets of Rome and
Athens two thousand years ago; il we are
10 believe antiquarians, as it is in any OF
our American cities at the present day.
These eggs, now called Easter eggs, were
known as Pasche eggs, cor
rupted TO Paste eggs, because connected
with the Paschal or Passover feast. One
reason for assoeiating an egg with the
day on which our Savior arose from the
dead may be that the little chick,
ENToMBED, so TO SPEAK,
in the egg, and rising from it into life,
1