Omaha daily bee., 1894-03-25
THE QUEEN OF FESTIVALS
Instructive Review of the Early Oontrover-
sizes Regarding the Easter Day
ORIGIN OF THE NAME AND DATE
Customs, sports and superstitions Among
Various Races and Countries-Some
Ancient and Modern OBJ
servances.
Lcopmi. h,,a ls94 AN Rlgnts Re,erpea.l

[Copyri ht,d 1894, Al Rights Re'Grpei.l
Easter from its earliest day has been
styled "rhe Queen of Festivals" The print,
tive Christians, from their close connection
with the Jewish church, naturally continued
TO observe Jewish festivals, of which the
principal one was the Feast of the Pass,
over which celebrated the passing over
of the houses of the children of Israel In
Egypt by the destroying angel when he
smote the Egyptians. Easter is the per-
petuation of this Jewish feast of the Passover,
which, ennobled by the thought of Christ,
the true Paschal sacrficial lamb-the first
fruits from the dead-became the Christian
Easter. Even at the present day Easter is
known to the French as Paques. to the ltal,
fans as Pasqua, and to the Spanish as
Pascua, all of which are derived from the
Latin Pascha. and the Greek ParXa, which
are Chaldee or Armanaeu forms of the
Hebrew word Pesach, slgnifying the Pass
over.
For many years a long and bitter contro-
versy 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 ter
inmate at the same time as the Paschal
fast of the Jews, to which it was analogous,
on the fourteenth day of the moon, and that
Easter should Immediately follow, without
regard to the day of the week: Gentle
Christians, on the contrary, maintained
that the first day OF the week should be OBJ
served as that of our Lords resurrection,
and the preceding Friday should be kept as
the occasion of his cruciiXion, without re-
gard to the day of the month. BY reason of
their observance of the fourteenth day of the
moon, the former class were derlsively
STYLED "Quartodecimani." or fourteen-day
men, by the latter, who also stlgmatized
them as heretics. These differences were
gradually harmoniZed by the church at
Rome, even at the council OF Nicaca' A.
D., 1926, the Syrlans and Antiochenes stul
declared themselves in favor of the jewish
usage, 1t was partly TO settle this controversy
that the Emperor Constantine mad called
his council, and its members finally agreed
that Easter shall hereafter be kept on
one and the same day throughout the world,
ness of the Jews" Thus the quartodecim-
ami or fourteen-day usage was done away
with, but, though Easter was now univer,
sally kept on a Sunday, no cycle by
mas to be calculated had
been agreed upon, and, hence, there were
vide discrepancies between the times at
which Easter was celebrated in various
places. The church at Rome established
he rule that Easter should be the FIRST Sun
lay after the fourteenth day of the calendar
noon, which happens on or next after March
II, A canon of the fourth council Of Or
cans, A. ID. Sal, ordained that Easter should
De kept at the same time by all according
o that rule. which was finally established in
England by Archbishop Theodore in A. ID,
90. More than 900 years later another dis
'repaney in the observance OF Easter arose
between the Roman and English churches,
through the refusal OF the latter, in 1852.
o adopt the Gregorian calendar, but this
Inference was reconciled I'm 1852. when the
new style" was adopted throughout the
United Kingdom. The churches OF Russia
md Greece, however, ana. indeed. the