The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1895-04-12
NOW FOR GLADNESS.

NOW FOR GLADNESS.
To-day, Good Friday, will be cele-
brated by Christian people through
out the world as the suppositions
eighteen hundred and sixty second
anniversary OF the crucifixion of our
Saviour. 1t is impossible to fix the
exact date of the various events con-
corning the life and ministry of Christ,
so the Christian world has had re-
course to the closest approximate dates
for their great festivals and fasts.-
Thus, while no one knows whether
December % is really the anniversary
of that momentous event that occur
red at Bethlehem about eighteen
hundred and ninety-five years ago, it
is well settled that it happened about
the time of the winter solstice, and if
we Observe the day with proper feeling
it makes no difference whether we are
chronologically correct or not. The
Easter season, with its forty days OF
penitential preparation has not even
a fixed date but is IA movable feast
the most important of all movable
feasts from which all the rest are de-
terInined
The proper time for the observance
of Easter occasioned great controversy
in the primitive Church. Before the
Council of Nice 1926 A. d. the Eastern
Church celebrated Easter on the
fourteenth day of the first Jewish
month or moon, considering it to be
equivalent to the Jewish Passover
The Western Christians celebrated ii
on the Sunday after the fourteenth
day, holding that it was the com
memoration of the resurrection of Jes'
us. The Council of Nice decided in
favor of the Western custom, but this
only settled the fact that Easter was
to be celebrated on a Sunday. Its
proper date is now ascertained by the
Gregorian Calendar, a method too COM
plicated for description here At the
time of the introduction of the Gregor-
ian Calendar it was debated whether
Easter should remain movable OF
whether fixed Sunday after March
81 should not be adopted, but defer
ence to ancient custom led the eccles-
tiastical authorities to adhere to the
method of determination by the moon.
1t should be remembered, however,
that it is not the actual moon of the
heavens that regulates the time of
Easter, but an altogether imaginary,
ecclesiastical moon, whose periods are
so contrived as to always follow those
of the real moon by two or three days.
One object of arranging this calendar
moon was, that Easter might never
fall on the same day as the Jewish
Passover. Notwithstanding this pre-
caution they did fall together in 1906
and 1925 and will do so again in 1908
and three more during the twentieth
century.
Easter derives its English name
from the festival of the goddess Ostara,
in lo-Saxon, Eastre, which the
Saxons of old were wont to celebrate
about the same season that the Chris
tian festival occurs. The early Church
found the pagan people of Europe so
firmly attached to certain heather fes-
rivals that the custom could not be
rooted out, so she wisely adopted
them, giving them a Christian signi-
ficance. In this way some of the
customs and features of the old
Roman Saturnalia remain in the pop
ular celebration of Christmas, and
the northern festival, which still re-
tains many traces of its pagan origin,
ard which was the spontaneous out
break of the joy of an icebound peo-
pie at the approach of spring and the
awakening of nature, has become the
expression of Christian delight at the
rising of the Sun of Righteousness and
symbolic of faith in immortality
The use of eggs has also come to be
regarded in the same symbolic light
the egg being regarded as the first
principal of animal life and emblema-
tical OF life eternal breaking from its
barriers of clay.
Easter frequently comes while the
earth is shrouded in snow, but it comes
this year at very fitting time
Spring is just beginning to make a
show and early flowers are peeping
forth All indications point to a
gradual improvement of business con-
ditions and better times for all. Let
us all remember the many mercies we
have to be thankful for and acknow-
ledge with humble hearts our debt of
gratitude to Him who died upon q
cross of suffering SO many years ago
that we might live and be blessed
Then let us all attend church next
Sunday morning and aid Christ's cause
with a substantial and commensurate
thank offering for the many blessings
received the past year and the pro-
mise of those to come.