Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1895-04-13

lighted, when needed as a preservatlve
against tcmpests. Less well observed is
an old custom of putting the house in Or
der on Easter day, particularly the kitch-
en-.
In many parts of Ireland and England
in oldon days the belief obtained that on
Easter morning the sun danced in honor
of tho resurrection. On the evening of
Holy Saturday great preparations wcro
made for the finishing of Lent Many
fat hen and dainty piece of bacon were
put in tho pot by tho cotter's wife, and
woe to the person who should taste it be-
fore the stroke of 12, but at that hour
would be heard the clapping of hands and
cries of ''Out with the Lent!' All would
be feasting and morriment for a few hours,
when the good people would retire, to rise
about 4 O'Clock in order to SEQ tho sun
dance.
1t was an old custom in England to
break the Lcnten fast by eating gam
mon of bacon on Easter Sunday, and thus
show the adherence in which the Jews
were held on that festival day.
A custom obtained in many parts of
England In which, as soon as the service
of the church was over, the boys ran about
and laid hold of every woman or girl they
could meet on the street and accosted
them with Pay for your shoes, if you
please" at the same time STOPPING to take
them off, which, if they were not paid,
they would do and would carry the shoes
off, leaving the hapless female in her stock
ing feet.
At Twickenham two great cakes used
to be divided in the church ON Easter day
among tho young people, while in the
Peak of Derbyshire a custom known as
sugar cupping obtained. The children
used to repair ON Easter morning to
spring called the Dropping Tor, with
cup in one hand, a quarter of pound of
sugar in the other, and having caught in
their cups as much water as was desired
from the dropping of the spring they dis.
solved the sugar i'll it and drank it,
1t is the custom of German families on
Easter eve to place sugar and real eggs,
the former filled with sugar plums, in a
nest, then to conceal it with dried leaves
in the garden, that the joyous children
may hunt for them on Easter morning.
1t is superstition all over the world
that one should wear new clothes on Eas-
ter day. Bad luck will follow if there Ia
not at least one article which is new.
1t was an article of faith with the de-
vout of Normandy that with the earliest
chimes of the church bells of Easter morn
celestial visitants descended and at every
mousse where there were little children left
eggs for them as tokens of their visits
But satan, ever on the alert, sometimes
adroitly slipped in an egg of i'll omen.
Many of the old Easter customs have
gone like the wassall bowl and yule log of
Christmas, but colored eggs, like Santa
Claus, have firm hold on the childish heart.
There is a pretty legend to account for
their origin-that bird sung sorrowful
lay over Christ's tomb, and as n reward for
its devotion its eggs were ever after deco
rated.
Another story is that of an oxiled lady
who amused herself and children by dec
Grating eggs with Easter notices. One
bearing the words, Hope In God" fell
into the hands of a soldier, who, by chance,
gave it to the captive husband and father.
He recognized the handwriting, and at
last the fragile train brought about the re-
union of the family