The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-05
THE ORIGIN OF EASTER
AND EASTER EGGS.

Second only to the Christmas festi-
val, Easter-the anniversary OF
Christ's resurrection-is the most COM
monty observed of all Christian cele-
brations. and like many other feast
days, it is an adoption of ancient GUS
tom to present circumstances.
The Jews annually celebrated the
feast of the passover in commemora-
ton of the .paschal sacrifice, or the
passing over of the houses of the
children of Israel the night all the
first born of Egypt were slain, and as
all the first converts made by the fol-
lowers of Jesus were Jews or people
intimate with the Jews, it was quite
natural for them 10 continue the cele-
bration of their former holidays giving
them a new significance in accordance
with their altered belief. We do not
find any mention of Easter in the New
Testament, nor did ChriSt'S apostles
ever inaugurate any church festivals,
SO the ecclesiastical historian, Socrates,
is doubtless correct in asserting that
our Easter is simply a perpetuation of
an old custom, the observance of the
feast Of unleavened bread" which
occurred in the first month called
Nissan of the Hebrews sacred year.
This period corresponds to the latter
half of our month of March and the
first half of our month of April.
The first Christians celebrated Easter
on different days, varying from the
first of March to the last of April, ac-
cording to the country in which they
lived, and though many attempts had
been made to appoint a common day,
no satisfactory result was attained
until the Roman church enforced the
observance of a certain day in 500.
Then all the churches of western
Europe, excepting that of England, fell
into line, but the differences of reckon
ing were not completely reconciled
until 1852 when the Julian Calender
succumbed to the Georgian. However,
to the present day, the old style cal
endar is still in vogue with the Rus
sian, Grecian and Oriental churches,
so in those countries Easter continues
to fall on a day different from ours.
Our present manner of annually cal
culating when Easter will come is by
setting aside the first Sunday after
the fourteenth day of the calendar
moon which falls upon, or next after
the twenty first day of March; if
the fourteenth day comes on Sun
day. Easter day will be the
Sunday following" Thus this
day may come on any day of the
five weeks which commence March 90
and end April 25; that is to say. it
cannot come earlier than March %,
nor later than April %.
Many superstitious ideas prevailed
in medieval Europe in connection
with the advent of Easter; in England,
for instance, it was generally believed
n q
that day. Referring to this error, the
gallant Sir John Sucking compli
mented dancing girl by saying:
mo sun upon an Easter Day
Is half so fine a sight
Probably the pretty custom of the
Moravian church in holding a sunrise
service in it's cemeteries in the crisp air
of the early Easter morning is parti-
ally survival of this superstition.
The ancient fire-worshiping Persians,
following the teachings of their pro-
phet Zoroaster, believed Ormazd Ghe
wise being) was the principal of light
and goodness, and beside him was
placed Ahriman, the principal of
darkness and evil. Once Ormazd pro-
duced an egg containing good genii,
and Ahriman, not to be outwitted, pro-
duced another filled with evil demons,
| and the two were broken together, and
good and evil were then mixed in the
new creation. From this legend our
! custom of using eggs as Easter gifts
| is probably derived, for as the pagan
idea was that the egg was the symbol
| of the Springing forth of life, and as
| ChriSt's resurrection represents new
birth into the best life of ALL and as
eggs are always plentiful at the time
of the festival, this emblem proved
! the most convenient and natural one
| for the Christian converts to adopt.
The modern custom of coloring eggs
at Easter has an categorical signifi-
oance thus: Red represents Christ's
| blood shed to save sinners; blue SYM
bolizes his promises which give us
hope; white is typical of a purified
soul; gold suggests treasures laid up in
! heaven; etc. In olden times
the churches were ornamented with
wax candles at this season, and
Christians saluted each other with a
kiss, saying Christ is risen" the reply
being, He is risen indeed, and this
custom still obtains in parts of Russia.
| where after the salutation. colored
eggs are exchanged. Today we attend
church and make presents of painted
eggs and Easter cards. The ancients
even to as remote a period as
that of the Syrians and Persians, made
use of colored eggs at the springtime
festival but in a manner somewhat
different from our ideas. Then as now,
Easter was a season of ceremonies and
sports and among these latter we still
find one surviving in the rural districts
of England. Boys and girls each sup
piled with a hard boiled egg bearing
some mark of distinction congregated
at the to- of some hill down which
the eggs were rolled while some pas
toral ditty was sung, the object being
to roll the egg without breaking it.
He whose egg remains longest unbro-
ken was the victor and won the eggs
of the others. And in our own land
the young people of today also play
for keeps" by knocking the eggs to-
winning the others.
In the rural parts of northern Eng
land the men walk the streets on
Easter day, claiming the privilege OF
lifting every woman they meet three
times from the ground, receiving a kiss
for the exertion. The next day the
women claim the right to do the same
to the men. Undoubtedly this custom
had the religious significance of typi-
flying the resurrection of Jesus on the
third day.
Among the many interesting facts re-
garding Easter eggs, the following are
worthy of mention:
On a parchment of Edward l. pre-
served in the tower. we find an entry
of the purchase of four hundred eggs
for eighteen pence thirty-six cents) tc
be used as Easter gifts.
The people of Burmah have a tradi.
ton that their Adam and Eve, a boy
rr,, I, ~,