The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1896-04-10
@THBEASPERTID1
The Various CHURCHES commemOr'
4 Resurrection of Chrisf.

"fTis the day OF Resurrection,
Earth, tell 1t out abroadl
The passover OF gladneSs,
The passover of God.
From death to life eternal
From this world to the sky,
Our Christ has bought us ever
With hymns Of victory"
With more or less ceremony the
Eastertide is celebrated in all parts
of the christian world. The traveller
-who,visits Jerusalem atathe Easter
time will be forcibly reminded of the
noisome buyers and sellers who
thronged the avenues leading to the
temple when Christ was among the
pilgrims at the Passover.
in Rome on Easter day the Pope
goes from the Vatican to st. Peters,
and assists at high mass; great cele-
bration is made, and the Easter SER
vice is concluded with the noise of
booming cannon filling the earth.
There is an old story that in Spain
a custom was to have an Easter
king. A peasant, who was thus
chosen, met Charles 1. and said, II
am king to-day" Much good may
it do you, my friend" said royal
Charles; you have chosen an eX-
ceedingly troublesome employment"
But there is no record of the king
yielding his place willingly to
another.
The English name Easter and the
German Ostern are most probably
derived from the name of the feast
of the Teutonic goddess Ostra, which
was celebrated by the early SaXons
in the spring of the year, and which
was supplanted by the christian
feast. The old word oster, which
means rising, adds significance to
the name, the time of the resurrec-
ton of nature being an appropriate
time to commemorate the resurrec-
ton of Christ. 1t is from the heather
feast, however, that the custom of
Easter fires, Easter eggs, and the
like, have their origin.
The early christian church OBJ
served the Paschal feast, which took
on new meaning with Christ as the
Paschal lamb; but there finally
sprang up difference between the
christians of the Jewish and Gentle
birth, regarding the exact day for
Observance-one COMMUNICATING
the death and the other the resur-
rection of Christ-and so bitter grew
the difference the matter was taken
before the emperor, Constantine, and
his council, where it was decided
that the Dist day of March should
be the vernal equinox, and the Sun
day following the first full moon af-
ter March 2lst, should be Easter.
Thus, you see, it may come as early
as March 22nd, or as late as April
25th. This year it came on the 9Th
of April, and it was Sunday of joy,
the queen of festivals, with Column
bians-and judging from the num-
Der of celebrations reported on hand,
with all Maury countians. Bells
were ringing, the early spring flow
ers were in full bloom, and the joy
of resurrection was in the air. 1t
seems so short a time since last Eas-
ter. "Why, it was only yesterday"
we say, and now it is Easter again.
But some of us sang the Easter an
thems with trembling tones in a
minor key, this year; the Easter
lilies were placed by tender hands
on the new-made graves; and we
were sorry, with transient human
pain, for the loved ones who missed
being with us this Eastertide, as if
the mere typical keeping of Easter
could compare with that Easter
which they have entered upon.
"Our lilies bloom and pass away,
But theirs shall live and bloom for aye"
Most all our churches celebrated
in some way the Easter morn, which,
in its springlike beauty, seemed a
day sent straight from heaven. The
decorations of the interior of the
churches were in keeping with the
spirit of Easter. Lilies predomina-
ted in the floral display, but huge
palms and rare plants and blooms
were plentiful, while roses and
azaleas frightened the general color
scheme.
First Methodist Church.
Great throngs greeted the appear
ance of the gifted divine, Rev. ID. G,
Kelley, of Bell Buckle, who came
out at the request of ladies of the
Methodist Missionary Society, to
I