The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1892-04-22
miscelIanen1ts.
TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS OF EASTER
From Harper's Weekly.

| lnhUlllVND ANU UUDlUWD UT hhDlEn.
From Harper's Weekly.
AS with many other festivals held
sacred by Christians, in those cele-
brated among us at Easter we note a
curious kinship to institutions and
| traditions more or less pagan in char
acter. The very name Easter, indeed,
is derived from that of an old Saxon
goddess, Eastre, identical with the
German deity Ostara, who, according
to Grimm, is the divinity of dawn.
| An old medieval writer has suggested
that the name came from Astur or
Astre, the hearth, because of the Gus
tom then prevailing of cleansing the
hearth at that time, removing the
brands and blackness of winters fires,
in order to decorate the place with
flowers and green rushes. But among
the Anglo-Saxons the spring month
April was called Eostermonath, and
the festivity in honor of the goddess
was Ester, a name we have adopted
as we have adopted that Of Thursday
and other names from heather divini-
ties. Except those of the German
family, however, all other Christians
make use of some modification of the
j.,
Passover, celebration in honor of the
deliverance of the Jews in Egypt,
when the angel of death passed over
the houses of Israel Thus in Italian
it is Pasqua in Spanish, Pascua in
French, Paque in Swedish and Dan
ish, Paask and Paaske. The feast of
Easter, indeed, apart from the festi-
walls connected with its season, is dis
tinctly derived from that of the Jews.
Christ himself kept it the night before
His death, giving a new Interpretation
toit. 'Christ, our passover, is sacri-
feed for u.s." says st. Paul, ''there-
fore let us keep the feast" But jim all
celebrations, whether Christian or pa
gan, the idea of joy was expressed, of
deliverance, and of the coming of light
Polycarp, who was in Rome in 100,
says there were two modes of cele-
bEating Easter, for both of which
day after Nissan 18th, that is, on tt the
Sunday following the first full moon
after the vernal equinox, the YER
mol equinox always falling on the
21st of March. The previous Friday
was also celebrated in memory
of Christ's death, and also called,
Pasch. Thus there grew a distinction
noticed by Tertullian in 200, between
the Pasch on which fasting was obli-
gatory-the kiss of peace being omitted
and the other Pasch, between which
and Pentecost all Christians prayed
standing. By later writer's these were
designated as the Pasch of the Cruel
fixion and the Pasch of the Resurrec-
ton. During the latter Pasch, Ter
tullian and st. Chrysostom says that
| the Christians standing at prayer,
with arms extended and hands up
raised, looked as though in nalcon-
tent that they could not fly even up
to heaven.
A sense of joyous exultation has al
WAYS been expressed in both the
ancient and the modern churches at
this time. There was first the fasting
till the growing of the cock, and then
sudden breaking forth into song.
Tapers were lighted, the Lumen
Christi Night of Christi chanted, to
which the priests responded, Dec
GratiaS' (Thanks be to Cod. In the
ancient Church it was 1.-THE Lord is
risen,'' to which answer was made,
sHe is risen indeed" Joyful celebra-
tions followed the day, prisoners were
liberated, slaves freed, and charities
dispensed to the needy.
From one end of the world to the
other, then, all men begin the Easter
celebration with acclamatlons OF JOY.
To these acclamations even the earth
was supposed to respond, as among
the heather response was made by
man to the waking up of earth from
the death of winter In Ireland, for
instance, after sleeping, men rose al
dawn to see the sun dance in honor OF
the Resurrection. Says an old song OF
1867,
but Dick, she dances such a way,
No sun upon an Easter day
Is half so fine sight,"
The superstition, however, for all its
verse, had it's apologists as well as it,
believers. 1--WE shall not" says Sil
Thomas Browne, author of Vutgd1
Errors, "disparage the Resurrection
of our Redeemer if we say that the
sun does not dance on Easter day
and though we would willingly assem-
unto any sympathetical eXultatlon
vet we cannot conceive therein any
more than a tropical expression.
Its true" says another author O
1880 early did scepticism creep IL
cit may sometimes happen TO SHINE
brighter that morning than any other
but if it does, tits purely accidental
When men had grown too old to SCI
this dancing of the sun, children trie'
by tricks to do so. "A vessel full
water was set out in the open air, IL
which the reflected sun seemed t.
dance, from the tremulous motion o
the water"
In the History of Kent there is al
account given of the distribution o
} bread on Easter Sunday-600 cake
and 27O loaves of bread with cheese
| twenty acres of land, called Bread ant
/ Cheese Land, having been set apar
| for that purpose. In other part
\ of England cakes were distributed
till Parliament interfered and ordere
the buying of bread instead. On
/ pound a year is still charged eac
. vicarage for penny loaves OF bread t
be given to the poor on the Thursda
after Easter.
: A curious custom in England wa
that of taking the shoebuckles c
women on Easter Monday by the mel
g and the taking of those of the men b
. the women on Easter Sunday. Thes
, were retained till the following Wet
= nesday, and then redeemed with fol
feits, leading to various festivitie
l. called Tansy, after a peculiar cak
then eaten. There was among otht
English customs the rolling of youn
couples down Greenwich Hill, and tt
clipping of churches by children
=, the charity schools. Each child stoC
with it's back to the church, joiniI
m hands till the circle was complet